Happy New Year, everyone! We made it a whole year, and I am so proud of each and every one of you.
As we move forward into this new year, I want to take some time to reflect on the last one. 2021 was a very hard year—for a lot of people, not just me—but I’m looking at 2022 with more hope. Last year, I lost relationships, I lost friendships, I lost my sense of self for a while. This year, I’m working to put together all the broken pieces of me to rebuild myself stronger than before.
2022 will be a year of growth, a year that I want to feel better. I’ve already started taking steps toward that goal through starting therapy and medication. In January, I’m also doing a full month detox from everything that makes me feel less than the best version of me. I’m doing Dry January with my best friend, which means no drinking for the entire month. I’m trying to cut out fast food and instead prepare nourishing meals for myself. Finally, I’m trying to cut back on my caffeine content. When I drink more often, eat out all the time, and have too much caffeine, I don’t feel great about it. All of these affect my mental health and my own self-image, so starting the year with a deep detox of my toxic behaviors will be so refreshing.
For the rest of the year, instead of setting resolutions, I plan on setting realistic, attainable goals. First, I want to be more financially responsible. I want to build and stick to a budget and stop spending money on things I don’t need so I can start saving and planning for my future. Second, I’m setting fitness goals to reach by the end of the year. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been slacking with my OrangeTheory routine. Instead of my usual 4-6 workouts per week, I only went to one last week and three the week before. I want to get back to my normal schedule, and I want to focus on increasing my speed on the treadmill and building more muscle on the weight floor. Third, I want to really work on improving my mental health. I want to keep going to therapy, keep taking my medication regularly (and at the same time every day, which I’m terrible at doing), and keep learning what my triggers are and how to overcome them in a safe way.
Finally, in 2022 I want to be more gentle with myself. I’ve always had high expectations for myself and never let it go easily when I would fail. This year, I plan to work on letting go of some of that need to be perfect all the time. I’m not perfect, and I shouldn’t have to be. No one is, so why should I punish myself for not meeting a standard that doesn’t exist? Being gentle with ourselves should be a top priority for everyone this year. We’re coming up on our third year of living through a global pandemic, we’re still experiencing so much uncertainty about the future, and that’s not easy. We need to remind ourselves that it’s okay to not be okay, and it’s okay to take time to heal and recover if we need it.
As always, stay safe + stay healthy, and let’s have a great 2022!
Xo,
Kayla W