Hello and Happy New Year! I appreciate I am a little late but better late than never! I have been a bit quiet on the blog for the last few months, I found myself in a bit of a reading block, I was struggling to focus and read many books. I felt like I was chasing my tail a lot, work was busy, home life was busy, my little one was ill, Christmas was being prepared for and I just lost a bit of my bloggers mojo. It definitely got bumped to the back of my priorities. However I am back! I have intentions to write more content and hopefully you will find it interesting!
That leads very nicely onto the reason for this post, I wanted to plan some intentions for the new year and I find that having them in writing gives me a little more encouragement to continue with them. I have stopped making resolutions as I always felt they were very unachievable, I always chose too large a scale of resolution. I always went in with big plans that I generally gave up within the first few months as I found them too challenging or I didn't really want to do them and had only set them for myself as I thought I should.
"An intention is something you want to manifest in your life or some guiding principle that you want to live by. Resolutions however are hard and fast goals, that are either achieved or broken, intentions are broader ideas."
www.aarp.org
This year I want to do something slightly different, I want to set intentions that are achievable. That help to keep me positive, make me feel better in myself and serve me well. So here are my intentions for 2023...
𝐼 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎.
Over the last year I have become very sluggish, my fatigue has not fully gone. I feel tired all the time, my joints ache, I get breathless and I am just not happy in my own skin. I want to feel healthier, I want to be able to keep up with my five year old, I want to be able to chase him around and play without feeling exhausted. I want to be able to walk up the two flights of stairs in my house without feeling out of breath. There are a number of things I can do to achieve this, I will try to go to bed earlier, I will try to make better food choices, I will try to drink more water and I will try to move more.
𝐼 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒.
This is linked to my first intention as if I become more active I know this will help me to feel better in my own skin. This is a trickier intention as I have to take it slowly in order to keep my fatigue at bay. I can't jump full throttle into a new workout routine, but to be honest that is better as I feel it will build up more naturally and be easier to maintain. I am going to sign us up as a family to the National trust so that we can be more active together, we love to go walking so this will encourage us to get out more even if we are fancying a film day! I will try to walk more and also do some fun dance YouTube workouts as if the exercise is enjoyable I will keep it up.
𝐼 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀 𝒽𝒶𝓁𝒻 𝒶𝓃 𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝓌𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝒶 𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓀
I am usually rushing around trying to get myself organised ready for work and I inevitably leave late and then feel rushed when I get in. So at least twice a week I am going to prepare my lunch and breakfast the night before and leave the house half an hour earlier than normal. This will mean that when I get to work I can go for a walk around the area and start my day off with a positive mental attitude and some fresh air! I work in the Peak District so there are plenty of beautiful places to walk around to get me ready for my working day!
𝐼 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝒹𝓊𝒸𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓂𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝐼 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉
This year I want to limit the amount of book tours I apply to so that I only do two a month maximum. I love to read new ARCs as part of a book tour but I also tend to find myself getting overwhelmed if I take on too many and then I stop enjoying the reading part. If I minimise the tours I take on it limits the deadlines I create and means I can read more for pleasure as I have a huge TBR of books waiting patiently on my shelves! 2023 is the year I make a dent in some of those!
𝐼 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓈𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒
This is something I have become much better at over the last year and I intend to keep it up. I think finding time for your own self care is so important and improves your mental health and wellbeing no end. I am going to take more time to myself for my reflexology, I will try to do more meditation and get out in nature more as this improves my mood and will again help towards my first intention of feeling better in my skin.
So there you have it, my intentions for 2023 are now written and I will begin to manifest them.
Have you set any intentions for this coming year? I would love to hear about them in the comments.