New Year, New Outlook
2015 was not a good year for me and 2016 pretty much sucked too. I had a lot of happy moments during each of those years, but there were some very sad moments too. My health was also not the greatest because of the compounded stress and junk food I was putting in my body.
Many people do New Year's resolutions and my thoughts on that have been the same for a couple of decades. I used to get really excited about changing a bad habit or putting something positive into my life, like exercise. I'd start out the first week or two and do really well until life came along in week three to ruin it all. I'd get discouraged, but keep trying until February when I started to realize that the goal was just too much for me to handle and I'd give up. From about 1997 and on, I made a resolution to make no more resolutions and that worked well until now.
I've been giving my health some scrutiny these past six months. I've made strides in my anxiety and panic attacks. My stomach, though not 100% normal, is NO WHERE near as upset with me as it used to be. And I am starting to slowly incorporate the things I enjoyed, like reading, before my family's turmoil. These are all steps in the right direction, but I want to do more.
Exercise is important, so is eating right. But as a Fibro sufferer, you can't always depend on your body to feel strong enough to do these things when you can barely get out of bed! I started talking with a Facebook friend named Vikkas a couple of months before the new year and he wanted to know from his all of us what our resolution or goals were for 2017. I thought about it for a few moments and came up with something I could live with and definitely live by. I want to practice more self-care.
Self-care is broad. It is not specific. If self-care can be exercise on a good day-- great! I can put in a 7-10 minute workout. If my sciatica is acting up, then self-care might mean a few hours in bed with a good book. Self-care can also mean more at home spa days filled with bubble baths, facial masks, and pedicures too! The sky is the limit with self-care AND it is broad enough to incorporate something for yourself positive daily to reach your goal.
My goals for this year are to focus on calming my mind and spirit with meditation, yoga, and streamlining my newsletter and websites for my writing business. I also want to work on feeling less pain so I will be exercising for no more than seven rigorous minutes a day with situps, stretches, and lunges. I also plan on focusing on taking more at home spa days where I take care of my feet, soak in some epsom salts, and care for my dry skin. These are all things that can be worked on throughout the week, or month and if I skip a day due to pain, I won't feel horrible.
I think we are too hard on ourselves when we try and stick to a strict regimen of one hour workouts in the gym or a diet consisting of only raw fruits and veggies. These goals are nearly next to impossible to achieve for someone with Fibromyalgia.
If you are living in a bubble and can avoid all human contact, you might be able to do one hour workouts daily. And if you are healthy enough to not need meat or carbs for deficiencies in iron or b-complex you could go on a vegan diet.
A fibromite may wish to have goals like these-- and more power to you if you want to, but if you are like me, you probably will fail. See, I can't give up my bacon or my writing, so you'd never see me doing these well LOL! And I will be the first to admit that!
So the next time you decide to make a goal or a resolution for the new year, focus on something broad, not specific, if you want to change your health or lifestyle. You don't have to quit all of your bad habits all at once, do them slowly and with a lot of self-love for yourself. I can guarantee you that you will then commit and KEEP your resolutions every year!
Stay fabulous!
Love and friendship,
Kimberley
