Why I won’t be saying ‘new year, new me’
Happy New Year you beauties! Hope you had a lovely start to 2017. Let’s start with a disclaimer – this post is in no way a dig at others who are going down this route! ‘New year, new me’ works for a lot of people and provides them with the motivation they need to reach their goals and targets for the year ahead and I am totally supportive of that *you go guys and girls*. In the past, I’ve been guilty of using this phrase repeatedly as the new year rolls in. However this year, I won’t be saying it. Not at all. This year, I’m focusing on ‘new year, improved me’. Which I guess you could say is kind of similar, but in my mind there are some very clear differences. Firstly, I’m not aiming for a new version of me. I’m not looking for a complete overhaul of my life. There’s a lot that I am content with in my life, however there are also some improvements I want to make. No big changes, no radical transformations, just some little improvements.
- Maintain a fitness regime – this was something I did for most of last year but I fell out of a routine and haven’t been back to the gym. I’m not fitness bunny, I don’t love going to the gym and I’m always that sweaty mess who’s out of breath draped over a cross-trainer after 5 minutes BUT it was such a good method of stress relief for me and helped my body and mind stay healthy. So I plan to get back in to my old routine ASAP (just maybe next week…as this first week has been like hello are my eyes even open?)
- Mindfulness – okay easy with the eye rolling, I see you. I was actually really in to my yoga and meditation for quite some time and then life got in the way and I stopped going. Terrible excuse really and I do miss the sense of calm and control I used to get from a good yoga session…even if I could never touch my toes! My plan is to start going back to my one yoga class a week and if that goes well, I’ll start introducing some 10 minute bedtime and morning yoga sessions to chill out and start the day afresh.
- Step away from the screen – oh my, this is the one that will be a challenge. My job involves computer work all day and then I tend to come home and sit on my laptop – whether that’s working on blog content, editing photos or prepping for our house move in Feb! (I have a full on spreadsheet planning everything out. No joke. It’s all colour coded too…where’s that nerd emoji?) I’m going to make sure I’ve switched off any screens for a minimum of an hour before bed to give my eyes and body time to relaaaaaaax. I’m hoping this will help me get to sleep quicker and catch some more zzz’s.
- Broaden my horizons – I realised I often waste my evenings by slouching on the sofa and binging on Netflix. That won’t change much, I do bloomin’ love a good series, but I’m going to start using my evenings to broaden my horizons as such – basically a fancy way of saying I’m going to ease up on being a massive couch potato. I love languages so I want to get back in to brushing up on my French and learning Portuguese too, as well as reading more books! I’ve always been a total bookworm but lately I’ve been watching more TV than reading and, well, I miss it.
- Connect – I’ve been wanting to connect with local bloggers ever since I moved to Essex nearly three years ago! I’ve had some lovely chats and met a few lovely bloggers but this is something I really want to improve on in the next year and get to know some likeminded blogger peeps. So if you’re in the area and fancy a natter over a coffee (or tea) hit me up! I’m going to try my best to attend more blogger events this year too, I missed out on some goodun’s last year.