Baby steps

Last week I was diagnosed with pneumonia and spent an entire week sitting home by myself. Although I spent much of this time sleeping in order to recover, I also had a lot of time to think about my life. My hopes and dreams, how I handled myself daily, and things I wanted to do better. I was searching on Pinterest several ways to practice self care, and along my journey I found a lot of articles about journaling. How this practice could help me to reflect on things I wanted to improve in my life, set goals, focus on accomplishments and gratefulness, and overall spend some time on me. Though I’ve tried to spend some “me time” over the years, this generally ended up sitting on the couch watching tv, or surfing the internet on my phone. I found that spending so much time with technology was actually doing the opposite of what I really wanted to accomplish.

I was comparing myself to others too much, watching strangers and friends accomplish things in their lives that I had not. Why were they seeing so much happiness and success in their lives? Why was I always feeling overwhelmed and like a failure?

So my first goal in my new journal is to not spend so much time on social media, following along with others journeys in life. Instead, I will focus on myself and my family, and set little goals each day to make myself feel more accomplished. Even if these little goals seem inconsequential to others, they can make a big impact on my life. So what if today my only goal is to stretch in the morning and fold a basket of laundry? It’s better than I did yesterday, and that’s what matters.

So if anyone happens to read this and is struggling to feel accomplished, think about a couple small things throughout your day that may not matter to anyone else but you. Something that may be routine, but can get overlooked in the chaos of daily life.

Straighten up a room in your house, drink and extra glass of water, or take 5 minutes to meditate or journal. It’s amazing the difference that these baby steps can make.