Being Better

The year 2020 changed the way we lived, worked, learned – practically every aspect of how we function as a society. I can only imagine historians trying to fit this past year into a textbook for future generations to learn! With that said, I feel like I can speak for many of us when I say that we have emotional whiplash from the amount of changes we have had to assimilate in short periods of time. It kind of felt like every time I got my head around one change another was just over the horizon. I think this has left many of us feeling as if the very foundation on which we stand is shaky and unstable.

Now, I am not the type to typically make farfetched or trite New Year’s resolutions. I typically try to look at the start of a new year like opening a new journal. The pages are crisp, the spine is stiff, and the possibilities are endless. After surviving 2020, however, it feels like 2021 deserves a bit more. A bit more planning. A bit more intention. Simply put, a bit more mindfulness.

It is with all that in mind that I have moved into the year 2021 with a purpose to focus on creating a fresh start for myself in mind, body and soul.

Mind

This is where I personally suffered the most damage in 2020. My anxiety and stress were (are) through the roof and my work life balance is laughable at best. And though we have been stuck at home for months, the stress and anxiety have caused me to neglect my home environment which has only further deteriorated my state of mind! The further I have let things pile up, the further I move from doing anything about it all – everything seems like just too much!

But here’s the thing – this line of thinking just simply has to stop! It’s not productive nor healthy to let your mind slip down the rabbit hole. So for 2021, I am making the effort to add dirt to the bottom of my rabbit hole. Let’s be honest, simply jumping out of the hole, or getting everything done, isn’t going to happen. I am not a rabbit - I have to realize that I am a field mouse that fell down the wrong hole. I need to do things to shore up my floor and get myself high enough to climb out! So my plan is to take things one at a time, one project, one item to clean, one stressor at a time until my little mouse self can climb out and see the light.

Body

I would love to say that I am in the shape I am due to 2020, I'd love to say it, but I can't, cause it would simply be a lie! Also, taking on some arbitrary goal to 'lose weight' or 'get in shape' isn't going to help me because there's no way to tell if you reached the goal. Have I lost enough weight? Am I enough in shape to say I'm in shape? No, setting goals like this would simply add to the mental stress I mentioned before! So here's my plan - I am simply going to be nicer to my body in 2021. This admittedly feels somewhat like the goals I mentioned before, unquantifiable, however, pretty much anything step I take would be nicer than how I have been treating my body!

Like most adults I have fallen into the trap of treating my body like a temporary home. If I'm just renting the place, I don't care if the paint is peeling or the floor isn't what I would prefer - it's not my permanent home, so it's fine. But, alas, my body IS my permanent home! I do need to care what I put into it and what I do to it! I won't go so far as to say it's a temple ... but a nice Tudor style family home would be great! So for 2021 I am going to be more mindful of the food that goes in, I am making the conscious decision to hydrate better (I always try to tell myself that coffee should count as water, since it's just dirty water, right? But I don't think my cells/organs feel the same way) and I am going to try to move more through walks and stretching. Hopefully, the combination of these things will start the renovation process on my permanent home!

Soul

This one is obviously harder to quantify. How do you improve your soul? Now, that sounds like a question better suited for philosophers, not me, so here's all I will say on my plan. I want to do things that make my heart happy and make me feel like I am making a positive impact in the world. So my plan is to find ways to donate my time and being to local causes. Thru volunteering or decluttering my house and donating those items to people in need or even to starting a pay-it-forward at a drive thru, my commitment to 2021 is to do more of these things!

So, to sum it up, my plan for 2021, simply put is to be better. Better to myself and better to others. I'm going to add layers to my foundation and climb my little field mouse self out of the rabbit hole. I am going to stop treating my body like a rental, and I am going to try to make a positive impact in the world, however big or small that may be.