My February 2021 Intentions

My February 2021 Intentions

How is it already the second month of 2021?! The older I get the more I understand older folks when they say that time flies by even faster the older we get. As it’s still early on in 2021 I want to keep a few of my routines and get back to others; one of which is keeping up with my monthly intentions.

This month, I have 6 intentions, which is more than I usually set but I group them into three categories so they work together to help improve several aspects of my life.

1. Consistently track my symptoms & flares: Anyone living with a chronic illness knows the struggle of flares and symptom changes. When dealing with severe flares, the last thing I think about is tracking my symptoms or making sure to keep record of them for future purposes like doctors’ appointments. But this month I want to make sure I consistently track my symptoms. In tracking my symptoms and ebbs and flows of them I can more easily see when my symptoms or pain flares are worse and see if I can determine if I have any triggers or times when my pain is worse than others. Being able to see my symptoms and severity of flares in front of me can make it a lot easier to see patterns (if any do exist) and that can make creating a treatment protocol easier.

2. Move my body in some way every single day: Movement feels good, when I am able to do it. I want to take a page out of the Elle Woods handbook and exercise for those endorphins. Now I don’t expect to go and have a crazy intense workout, but that’s not what matters. What matters is showing up. Moving in whichever way feels good in the moment is what matters (yoga, cardio, some weights, anything really). And it doesn’t have to be a long workout, what matters is that the effort is there.

3. Meditate every day: I never notice how tense I am during the day, that is, until I meditate. Meditation always feels great to me. Life is always crazy and busy, even more so now with everything going on. Meditation gives us a moment to do nothing but breathe. Taking a moment to just sit and breathe can be an incredible reset. Meditation let’s us see where the stress rests in our body and return to the present moment. Taking a moment to meditate and just feel my heart beating in my chest is a great way to ground myself and get my mind to stop racing and return to focusing on the present moment.

4. Write 1 blog post per week (at least) – and write a little something every day: I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Gilbert and I’m rereading her incredible book Big Magic and a particular passage really resonated with me. In it she spoke of the importance of daily practice. If we want to improve upon anything, it’s about repetition. It’s about showing up and practicing. It doesn’t have to be amazing, heck it doesn’t even have to be good, you just have to make the point of doing it anyway.

5. Record 1 Youtube video per week (at least): I will fully admit I’m majorly behind on my YouTube content creation. Truthfully, creating video content wasn’t a priority with my surgery, moving, and my health being its stressful self. And recognizing that it wasn’t priority feels a whole lot better than just saying I “didn’t have the time” for it; I take back the control and I chose what was and wasn’t a priority. This month however I do want to make creating video content and blogging a priority. Things in my life have calmed down a little bit so because of that I feel like I’ll be able to focus more on creating content this month; but if I don’t get as much done as I’d like to, I’ll also try to be kinder to myself and not feel guilty for having to shift priorities or drop things to keep my health at the top of my priorities.

6. Create more freebies for my blog: My main goal with my blog has always been to help anyone living with a chronic illness / illnesses like myself. It can be incredibly isolating and frustrating having no idea where to go to find people you’re able to relate to and have that sense of camaraderie and that’s why I started everything in the first place. Somewhere for people like me to go to not feel so alone. So this month I really want to make a few more freebies for people to be able to use in their daily lives; because we can all use a little help every now and then.

Like I said, I know this is more intentions than I usually have but I’m excited. It’s a new year, it feels like a fresh start for me. So much heaviness was going on last year and I don’t want to carry that into this year but instead focus on the good I can bring forward. And that includes the intentions I can set for the month ahead. Here’s to a fabulous February everyone. Cheers!