New plans for a new year

I wasn’t planning on doing a post to mark the new year, but I’ve read a few really motivating and inspiring ones (such as this one from Karen White) and thought I’d write something briefly. It’s also high time I reignited this blog!

2016 was an interesting year for me in many ways. It was full of some serious highs, like one of my best friends getting engaged, two other friends getting married and successfully completing the Inca Trail with Alex. However, that phenomenal trip to Peru (which I will never regret) also made me really quite poorly, which eventually culminated in a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 

Luckily, thanks to a combination of modern medicine, a strict diet and grim determination, I am over the worst of the illness and hope to stay in remission for a long, long time. Far from wanting a pity party, this is why I am resolving to be as healthy and happy as possible in 2017.

This involves the following things – call them resolutions, goals, call them what you will, but this is what I would like to aim for this year:

• be more mindful: sounds horrendously clichéd but I think this is really important for me. So often I try to do too many things at once, which has recently led to almost getting a parking ticket, almost bumping into cars when reversing in car parks and dropping my new phone and breaking it on Christmas Day. Being more aware of my surroundings will hopefully not only reduce these clumsy occurrences but also mean I appreciate them more.
• stay in one evening a week at least: related to the above, I frequently book myself up far too far in advance and never have a chance to just sit down with a cup of tea and binge-watch something on Netflix. To be able to be more mindful, I need to stop rushing around so I am going to try and calm down the plans, particularly during the week. (I am also hoping this will become significantly easier once we finally complete on our house and move in!)
• read more: I have over fifty books on my to-do list, but have been too busy mourning finishing the Millennium series lately to get into something new. I vow to stop sleeping so much on my trains to and from work and use that valuable ‘me’ time to enjoy some non-screen-based prose.
• finish any projects I start: I have a terrible tendency to have ideas that at least I deem to be good, get excited about them, start them, and then don’t ever quite finish them. A recent example is my attempt to set up a website/blog/eBook for people trying to buy their first property. I really think this could be a great resource so would love to work on it more this year. I also have started to learn Arabic in classes at work, which I am determined to continue, and I would love to continue practising the modern calligraphy I have just taken up for long enough to be able to make (legible and attractive!) cards with it.
• eat less processed sugar: this will hopefully aid my illness recovery, boost my energy levels and perhaps even slim me down a little…we shall see.

And, as chance would have it, one of my friends from Routledge, who is also a qualified Yoga Health Coach, has invited me to take part in a pilot she’s running of a course she has named ‘Vibrant Living.‘ The plan is that successfully adopting at least some of these 10 habits will help achieve the aims I mentioned above.

There, I’ve said it now. So like Karen suggested, I can come back to this list in December and see how I got on.

Here’s wishing you all health, happiness and lots of success in 2017! Feel free to share your resolutions and goals for the coming year and the very best of luck with them!