Hi all!

Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a safe and wonderful holiday season.

For 2018, I have decided to set a theme for my year, rather than unrealistic resolutions I know I won’t stick to. I sourced this idea from the wonderful Lavendaire (Aileen Xu). Every single year, she creates an ‘Artist of Life Workbook’, to help you live your best life. It is full of activities and worksheets to complete, including month by month goal-setting and habit-tracking. I am loving it so far. Click here if you wish to purchase a copy.

Aileen sets themes for her year, by writing down words she wishes to bring into her life and focus on for 365 days. For example, in 2017, her theme was ‘space.’ She had been incredibly overworked in 2016 and therefore, vowed that in the new year, she would create more space to nurture herself. I loved this idea and decided I wanted to do it too. Now please don’t get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against resolutions. They can be fantastic motivators but I find I only stick to them for about a month, before I fall off the wagon. Also, I would like to point out that I have set many goals for this year but they aren’t designed to set me up for failure like: ‘exercise every single day’ or ‘only ever eat healthy food’ because we all know those types of statements don’t, work nor are they very fun. When we set these unsustainable expectations, we often end up being really hard on ourselves, when they inevitably cannot be maintained long-term. What we want more of in our lives is self-love and care, not judgement. Avoid this by establishing themes and realistic goals you know you can meet.

So with that out the way, my theme for 2018 is to be:

CALM & GROUNDED

These words may sound simple or complicated, depending on the person reading it. For me, I would say a mix of both. I spent a lot of my life living with anxiety, but in the last few years, I’ve learnt to relax and manage my racing nerves. This year, I have some huge, life-changing things coming up that will require me to be as calm & grounded as possible. All will be revealed in time. I have accepted already that I will be challenged and placed well outside of my comfort zone, amidst new situations. Please understand, what is coming is extremely positive. I couldn’t be happier but I have to prepare myself mentally, as best I can. There are going to be things that will be well outside my control. There will be times when I feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do. All I can ask of myself this year is to remain calm and grounded. When I feel lost, I can turn to others for help or remind myself that stress will achieve nothing. When my mind starts thinking of the worst case scenario, I can bring it back down to Earth. These two words are what I want to keep bringing myself back to, as I sail into the next 365 days.

If you wish to set your own theme this year, take a moment to reflect on what you truly want to focus on. It could be a mantra, one word, two or three. It could be how you want to feel or what you desire to become. Your theme could relate to a specific event that will take place within 2018. For example, if you are planning on travelling for a while, you might use adventure or freedom or taking chances as your goal. If you literally have nothing planned for the year, maybe choose to work on a new project or develop more self-love. You could use creativity, passion or loving the skin I’m in. There are absolutely no rules or guidelines here. You could even change your theme along the way, if you feel it no longer applies to your life. Whatever the case, set your intentions and believe in them with all your heart. I don’t expect to feel calm & grounded every single day of the year. That is ridiculous. But I am determined to return to that mindset, whenever I find myself awash in a sea of thoughts that serve me no purpose. I know meditation, reading, journaling and talking things out will assist me in my journey. 

If you wish to set a theme and share it with me, please do so in the comments. I would love to read them. I hope this post inspired you to make 2018 your most inspirational year yet. Thank you for reading.

Peace & Love xoxo