Hello Fabulous!
So here we are, at the beginning of another new year. Traditionally it’s a new start and a new time to make new goals and set new patterns of behavior. We start out with the best of intentions to make new habits to reap greater rewards, often times we wind up losing our course as early as March. I know, I have done it for decades. Now the “new age” me does the same pattern of setting my self up for failure using a vision board. I have made vision boards year after year and they seem to be like the resolutions of old, and get placed on a back shelf or get other things placed in front of them until I do a big clean out and find it again. This is always a disappointing find. It makes me feel bad about my self. Like this was a great plan and I wasn’t enough to get it completed. Beating myself up should have been on those vision boards, because that is usually what I wound up manifesting.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love a good vision board. I also love a good resolution. However, I do these things a little differently these days. Let me share with you my new groove on the new year dealio.
The first rule is to know myself. Everyone has patterns. Patterns are like habits. Habits can be broken. I also understand that sometimes addictions will imitate habits. Addictions need healing. Stress induced coping mechanisms also need to be healed from another perspective. For instance, every year I resolve to lose weight and stop eating sugar. Well, I do it. Then I start it up again and before too long I am right back where I was when I made the resolution. I understand that my sugar issue is an actual addiction that is going to need to be healed. I also understand that my need for a sweet-salty treat situation when I am working is a coping mechanism for stress.
I need to have compassion for myself during stressful times and be gentle with myself during work crunches. I also need to make additional time for distraction and for breaks when I am stressed and need to be creative. I need to understand sugar addictions and how to heal from them.
I need to hack my eating code with compassion and education. That should be the resolution. That should go on my vision board. Learning about eating and stress and sugar addictions. Armed with the understanding of my patterns and the research on sugar addiction and stress/eating behaviors, then I can start healing my way to losing some weight or at least eating a little healthier.
So I start small. Maybe I incorporate one habit change per month or every other month, or maybe I stay with the one change all year. It is at my pace. I understand that this is like a big trip by car. The slower I go and the more stops I make the longer it takes to get to my destination. If I’m okay with that there is no problem.
You took a long time to get where you are and to develop the addictions or coping mechanisms or self sabotaging behaviors that you have today. A lot of things have happened to you in that time. Don’t punish your self by dwelling on what you are doing wrong. Heal yourself with compassion and education. Then make small changes that make you feel good.
Last year, I was pretty down on myself. My mom had just died and I was in a crazy place in my head. I was watching a video on YouTube filmed by these guys who go out into the ocean and pick out the trash. I felt so horrible about the state of the planet. I wanted to do something, but I was so overwhelmed with my grief that I couldn’t muster much determination. So, I made one little change. I decided not to use straws anymore. It’s all I did. Every time I got a beverage and used my silicone or metal straw, it made me feel good about me. It was a tiny internal celebration. I found out that making one small change made me feel good enough to make another small change. All of these little happy changes made change in me. I felt kinder and gentler. I was doing something small and easy and that made me confident enough to do something bigger. Confidence that I can make a change makes me stronger to make bigger change. Baby steps? Yes, darling. Baby steps.
Baby steps and compassion make you better in a loving and healthy way.
So, I encourage you to learn about you this year. Why do you do the things you do? What behaviors make you unhappy? What do you want to bring in to your life this year? How are you raising your etheric vibration to bring what you want to you? We all think we have to be tigers to fight for what we want. The Universe wants you to have abundance. We have to understand that attracting that abundance lies within us. What blocks the flow of energy? What is the core issue that needs to be healed in order for that energy to flow freely?
So, I am going to leave you with seven small things you can do to make yourself feel better about you. These are simple changes that do make an impact on your life and the lives of others. So, we can help the earth and everyone on it get a little bit better one tiny action at a time.
- Stop using plastic straws. Use metal or silicon, carry them with you and use them.
- Support local small business. Avoid the big box stores and support the people in your community.
- Use natural products. There are plenty of tutorials on how to make your own skin care products and cleaning products. Pick one and use it.
- I switched to distilled water, white vinegar and lemon essential oil for my spray cleaner and it does a terrific job and the lemon masks the vinegar smell.
- I also started to use an apple cider vinegar rinse on my hair after shampooing. My hair has never been shinier and my winter flakes went away.
- the more you care your put into self care, the more you will feel loved.
- Stop buying fast fashion. Cheap clothing wears out fast. It piles up in the landfills like mad. If you buy a couple of pieces of good quality clothing, they will last you for years. If you do buy fast fashion, at lease recycle your garments into something useful. ( rags for dusting, drawstring bags, reusable grocery bags, cut them into strips and crochet them into bags or rugs)
- Use reusable grocery bags. Amazon sells giant carabiners that have a rubber side so you can put the handles of your bags on it and you carry them all on one hook like a handle.
- Hand wash the dish you use. Air dry it and put it away. Cook in one pot. There are tons of recipes for one pot meals. One pot means one thing to wash. Saves you time. Saves you water. You get a hearty and healthy meal.
- Care for your spirit. Make eye contact. Smile. Offer a compliment. When someone gives you one, smile and say thanks. Raise your vibration in joyful activities. Ground yourself. Schedule quiet moments of self care. Drink tea ( that’s joy for me)
Each small change will lead you to another, and before too long the change is on a bigger and deeper level. We are really changing how we feel about ourselves. Self love is the real resolution. It just takes a minute to rebuild the structure to support it.
So, go on and make that vision board and put it where you can see it everyday. If you feel like it needs re evaluating later, that’s okay. It’s your vision. Make it pretty to catch the eye. Make it believable to your secret inside self, Make it doable so you don’t get overwhelmed and make it flexible so you don’t give up.
Be easy with yourselves. Go out there and love the world by loving you.
Love you meeces to pieces.
Smooch out.
Love Yourself Through It! 