January 31, 2024

This month I have learned, or relearned, to stay in the process. It isn't about perfection, it is about trying each day again. There are definitely still areas where I would like to and need to improve, but I've learned this month that consistency. Isn't about being there at 100% every day, it is about being there at all. And while there are plenty of areas that I could look at as not the way I want them to be, I'm learning to and getting better at celebrating the small wins. There are no failures. There aren't even really set backs. There are only steps on the path. It feels cliché to write, because we've heard it before, but there are some lessons that you can be taught intellectually, but you don't really integrate them into yourself until you've experienced them, probably multiple times. I've learned a lot about perseverance and persistence.

I’ve learned lots of lessons this month:

- Stretching does in fact feel good and done consistently really helps with my pain. In general, I need more consistency in the things I do to take care of myself. Once I am already in pain, it will take me several days of consistent self-care to recover, but I can prevent the pain in the first place with consistency.

- Facebook is bad for me, even if I’m just posting these prompts there. Honestly, so is every other social media platform that I share these on. I know I’m going to stop posting on facebook, but I kind of want to keep posting on Instagram even though it is just as bad for me. I think the contextualization that I share for how I came up with each prompt/why I think it is valuable to reflect on is really important and I tend to write those the day of, but perhaps I’ll spend one day a month scheduling out all of the posts for the other platforms and just share the image of the prompt with text saying you can read more in my newsletter. Something to experiment with.

- Writing by hand is a lot more effective for me than writing on my computer when I’m journaling. It is hard not to self censor when looking at a blank white page and knowing that I will send at least some portion of what I think about out. I like sharing my thoughts, but I think I need to switch to journaling entirely by hand/on my typewriter instead in the morning and then sending out my email later in the day and sharing anything from my reflection that I want to share in the contextualizing portion of the email. I’m going to try this for all of February I think and we’ll reevaluate what feels better/makes more sense at the end of next month.

- The way I am currently trying to use my daily planner is not working for me. Mostly because I am not using it. If anyone has a good daily planner practice that they want to share with me, please do! I could use some guidance.

- Asking for help is really hard and uncomfortable, but it is always worthwhile.