Getting Healthy – Inside & Out

 

I didn’t initially intend on taking this current route in my life, but if I didn’t believe in manifesting what I wanted before… I’m a believer now.

At the beginning of the year I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I don’t set goals just because it is the first day of a new year. I have continued to push through toward goals I have had set for years and some I have had set for months. But the one thing I have done the last two years is create a vision board at the beginning of each year.

For example, here is last year’s vision board:

I knew my main focus going into 2023 was going to be getting healthy and using my gastric sleeve surgery as a tool toward losing weight and getting healthier. You’ll notice that I added visions for my side hustle, as I was focused on growing that as well. And finally… travel, fun and relaxation.

Too often we don’t take those timeouts that help us recharge and reset. I learned last year that those timeouts are a vital piece for me to avoid fibro flares, chronic exhaustion, and those days when my body says “nope” and shuts down on me.

Now, here we are in 2024 and a new vision board has emerged.

You’ll notice that the layout is similar to 2024, but things have changed a bit. My side hustle is going well, but my focus has shifted. This year I want work on myself and my relationships – especially my marriage. It’s too easy to get into a rhythm of the every day grind and not think about putting in that extra effort with the relationships inside your house, and out.

Manifesting Self-Healing

Yesterday it hit me… I am making these goals happen without overthinking it. For example, working on myself looks like:

• Getting back into a nightly skincare routine
• Working on my bedtime routine so I am getting more quality sleep
• Advocating for myself and my needs, medically
• Taking time out for me – even if it’s just to sit alone and binge a few episodes of the latest series I’m obsessed with
• Regular chiropractic appointments, instead of waiting until it’s a dire situation
• Lunch walks at work
• Journaling
• Listening to audio books and reading (goal of 100 books this year)
• Meal planning and prepping
• Scheduled PT to develop a strength training plan

And then there are three big ones that I have added either recently or within the last few months…

• Laser therapy
• Mounjaro
• Acupuncture

I sectioned these out because, DANG, are they a huge part of my changes for 2024! I will make separate blog posts about these three new tools because I have a lot to say and want to share my experience in case it helps others along the way. I will say that I am so thankful to have these resources available to me.

Relationship Healing

Working on my healing and nurturing my relationships is a big focus for me this year. As I said, finding time to truly focus on relationships can be hard. It’s also easy to let the daily grind get in the way of taking that extra time to nurture your relationships.

Over the past year I have been dealing with a lot of mom guilt and wife guilt. I feel like I’m failing my kids – mostly my youngest daughter – because I get so frustrated and don’t spend as much time nurturing my relationship with her. I’m not ignoring her or anything like that, I just hate that I can’t fix her pain issues and worry I’m not doing enough for her. Plus we are so much alike that we butt heads and then I feel awful. It’s a sticky wicket!

On top of that, I know I haven’t given my marriage and husband the attention it/he deserves. I was so deep in kid stuff and focusing on quality time with the kids that I sacrificed time with my hubby. Finding that balance is hard as hell though.

So, my focus on my husband and marriage starts with more down time together when he’s home (he works 24-hour shifts as a firefighter) and date nights. Now that the kids are older, leaving them home alone isn’t a problem. I’ll share in another post some of the ideas that I/we have for our date nights. Some are as simple as staying in and watching a movie or the shows we like to watch together, while others are date days out of the house doing things we enjoy, or trying new things!

Slowly, but surely, I am manifesting my goals for 2024. For the first time in a long time I feel at peace with where I’m headed. I guess that’s the only way I can describe it. I’m happy and content in some ways, but in other ways I’m happy that I am pushing myself to give areas of my life the attention they deserve and that challenge is stimulating.

I’d say 2024 is off to an okay start on my end!