Starting a new year is an event filled with joy, anticipation, fear, dread, or nonchalance. We’re starting this new year with the ever-present cloud of the covid pandemic hanging over our heads. We all hoped it would be history by now. I hate this pandemic! As we enter the second year of it, I think I need to just accept the fact that it is a part of my everyday life. Are you struggling with this, too?
New Year Resolutions Or What?
Picking A Word
Since a new year always brings out the question, “What goals or resolutions do you have for the new year?”, this post discusses my thoughts on this topic. I discovered the idea of picking a word for each year several years back. Last year’s word was hope or hopeful. This year I’ve picked the word joy or joyful. I’m tired of living in stress and fear. I intend to look for things that bring me joy this year. As part of finding joy, I’ve decided that my life lacks fun. I need to look for things I can do that cause laughter and joy.
A quote I like on the topic of Joy for the new year.
If you want to learn more about picking a word for the new year, you can read my earlier post here.
Picking Intentions For Yourself
Liz at Despite Pain wrote a post about using intentions instead of resolutions for the new year. They are all very practical ones for those of us with chronic ailments. I’m combining her first intention of learn coping mechanisms and her last one of love yourself. I haven’t been coping well with stress at all and then I get mad at myself for not coping well. As a result, I’ve gained back almost all the weight I lost on the Bright-Line Eating Plan due to stress eating. So, I intend to take better care of myself by doing meditation and breathing exercises every day to help me manage stress. I also need to journal again.
I’ve realized that until I get my stress under control, I will continue to struggle with emotional eating. I have to be honest and admit that I had little hope that I’d succeed at managing stress better. Until I watched this video.
How To Have Your Best New Year Ever
Morgan’s main point is that we need to celebrate what we accomplished in the old year, instead of letting the things we didn’t get to drag us down. After watching it, I realized I have survived covid! That’s a success for me! If you’re reading this, you survived, too. Other successes I had in 2021 were:
I successfully helped my family with their 2021 health challenges.
I managed my health pretty well, because I only needed antibiotics once. This is a tremendous accomplishment for someone with an immune deficiency during a pandemic!
I paid all my bills.
I’m still blogging despite challenges.
I finished the rough draft of my book.
What have you accomplished in 2021? Write it down if you can to encourage yourself. 2021 wasn’t a complete failure. And if you don’t have monumental accomplishments, you still got out of bed when you could. You encouraged a family member or friend when they needed it. You took care of yourself the best you knew how. Those are worth celebrating, too.
Some New Year Resources
Below are a couple of resources that might be useful to you as you think about your new year’s goals, plans, or intentions.
I love her Mental Health goals of Stop Blaming Yourself, Forgive Yourself, and Stop Comparing Yourself! These are so important to all of us.
Next, Nikki at the Brainless Blogger wrote a post about reflecting a bit on the last year. Something that we can all relate to is asking ourselves how well we’re doing at being compassionate with ourselves. Nikki has a gentle no-stress approach to reflecting on our lives. You can read her post here: https://brainlessblogger.net/2021/12/31/year-2022-when-youre-thinking-about-resolutions/
Personally, I’d need way more time than New Year’s Eve to go through these questions. Perhaps they’d be good journal prompts for January.
Wrap-Up Of New Year’s Thoughts
Yes, the last two years have been immensely challenging, but don’t quit showing up in your life. 2022 just might be better. Pick whatever works for you as we enter 2022. I’m hoping and praying that you have a good year. Till next time, Kathy
If you’d like notice of new posts plus access to subscriber-only freebies, please enter your email address below. You may unsubscribe at any time, but I’d be thrilled if you stuck around.
5 Tips For Caregiving When You Have Chronic Illness
January 2022 Writing Prompts With "A Chronic Voice"
Welcome!
Hello, my name is Kathy and I’m a disabled nurse with multiple chronic illnesses. I research helpful information & share it to help you make the most of life with chronic illness. More
Want to learn more about CBD products? Get my ebook!
The post Review of Pampered Chef’s Rapid-Prep Mandoline + appeared first on UpBeat Living. Pampered Chef's Rapid-Prep Mandoline is a useful tool for prepping vegetables more easily. Not recommended for severe hand/arm pain sufferers. The post Review of Pampered Chef’s Rapid-Prep Mandoline + appeared first on UpBeat Living.
The post Affordable Mental Health Treatment: Where To Find It appeared first on UpBeat Living. It is possible to find affordable mental health treatment. Don't let cost stop you from getting the care you need. Check out these resources. The post Affordable Mental Health Treatment: Where To Find It appeared first on UpBeat Living.
The post Safely Use Alternative Energy Sources In An Outage appeared first on UpBeat Living. June is National Safety Month. Learn about alternative sources of energy you can use during a power outage & refresh your emergency prep. The post Safely Use Alternative Energy Sources In An Outage appeared first on UpBeat Living.
The post Mental Health Awareness + Self-Care Resources appeared first on UpBeat Living. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This post contains self-help resources for managing emotions, and education on mental illness topics. The post Mental Health Awareness + Self-Care Resources appeared first on UpBeat Living.
Knowledge is power! Get updates and subscriber-only resources in your inbox so you can live your best life.
You may opt-out of Google Analytics Data Collection here. Your link text
A note to our visitors
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU Cookie legislation. Please read this to review the updates about which cookies we use and what information we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated privacy policy.
UpBeat Living
Starting A New Year With Chronic Health Conditions
Starting a new year is an event filled with joy, anticipation, fear, dread, or nonchalance. We’re starting this new year with the ever-present cloud of the covid pandemic hanging over our heads. We all hoped it would be history by now. I hate this pandemic! As we enter the second year of it, I think I need to just accept the fact that it is a part of my everyday life. Are you struggling with this, too?
New Year Resolutions Or What?
Picking A Word
Since a new year always brings out the question, “What goals or resolutions do you have for the new year?”, this post discusses my thoughts on this topic. I discovered the idea of picking a word for each year several years back. Last year’s word was hope or hopeful. This year I’ve picked the word joy or joyful. I’m tired of living in stress and fear. I intend to look for things that bring me joy this year. As part of finding joy, I’ve decided that my life lacks fun. I need to look for things I can do that cause laughter and joy.
If you want to learn more about picking a word for the new year, you can read my earlier post here.
Picking Intentions For Yourself
Liz at Despite Pain wrote a post about using intentions instead of resolutions for the new year. They are all very practical ones for those of us with chronic ailments. I’m combining her first intention of learn coping mechanisms and her last one of love yourself. I haven’t been coping well with stress at all and then I get mad at myself for not coping well. As a result, I’ve gained back almost all the weight I lost on the Bright-Line Eating Plan due to stress eating. So, I intend to take better care of myself by doing meditation and breathing exercises every day to help me manage stress. I also need to journal again.
I’ve realized that until I get my stress under control, I will continue to struggle with emotional eating. I have to be honest and admit that I had little hope that I’d succeed at managing stress better. Until I watched this video.
Morgan’s main point is that we need to celebrate what we accomplished in the old year, instead of letting the things we didn’t get to drag us down. After watching it, I realized I have survived covid! That’s a success for me! If you’re reading this, you survived, too. Other successes I had in 2021 were:
What have you accomplished in 2021? Write it down if you can to encourage yourself. 2021 wasn’t a complete failure. And if you don’t have monumental accomplishments, you still got out of bed when you could. You encouraged a family member or friend when they needed it. You took care of yourself the best you knew how. Those are worth celebrating, too.
Some New Year Resources
Below are a couple of resources that might be useful to you as you think about your new year’s goals, plans, or intentions.
First, the Disabled Diva shared her 10 Realistic Goals for 2022 in this post: https://thedisableddivablog.com/2021/12/25/realistic-goals-chronic-illness/?fbclid=IwAR3-KAPjfrsaNB6Rm-7e0gap1pKARcd2w5tLWMONceWAmY0PTBYqYuVDG9w
I love her Mental Health goals of Stop Blaming Yourself, Forgive Yourself, and Stop Comparing Yourself! These are so important to all of us.
Next, Nikki at the Brainless Blogger wrote a post about reflecting a bit on the last year. Something that we can all relate to is asking ourselves how well we’re doing at being compassionate with ourselves. Nikki has a gentle no-stress approach to reflecting on our lives. You can read her post here: https://brainlessblogger.net/2021/12/31/year-2022-when-youre-thinking-about-resolutions/
Last, for those of you who love to reflect on your past year, here’s a list of 20 Questions to get you started: https://www.theartofsimple.net/new-years-eve-reflection-questions/
Personally, I’d need way more time than New Year’s Eve to go through these questions. Perhaps they’d be good journal prompts for January.
Wrap-Up Of New Year’s Thoughts
Yes, the last two years have been immensely challenging, but don’t quit showing up in your life. 2022 just might be better. Pick whatever works for you as we enter 2022. I’m hoping and praying that you have a good year. Till next time, Kathy
If you’d like notice of new posts plus access to subscriber-only freebies, please enter your email address below. You may unsubscribe at any time, but I’d be thrilled if you stuck around.
You may read my Privacy Policy here.