HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2017 is over (finally) and it’s a brand new year. I’m not a big one for resolutions and changing everything (if you ignore 2k14 and The Pound in Your Pocket) but after the year I’ve had (Who’s got an impressive ginger beard and just quit his job? This guy.) me and my wife have been thinking about small positive changes we can make to our life that are all about self-care. So here they are – I’ll try and let you know how we’re getting on.
- Keep up with the mental health blogging. I’m not always great at it and life keeps getting in the way but I really think that tackling stigma is worth doing. I guess this also includes being kind to ourselves – not being afraid to feel emotions or to talk about them, not overworking or pushing too hard when we need rest, and just accepting ourselves for who we are.
- One screen-free night a week. No phones, no laptops, no TV. Even Facebook admits it poses mental health risk – so we’re going to try having one night a week to disconnect from technology and just enjoy spending time together and see what happens.
- Cook one new dish every week from scratch – learning new skills and expanding our repertoire. Not only is learning new skills great for mental health, this will encourage us to eat more fresh veg with all of the vitamins and good stuff they contain.
- Watch West Wing all the way through. We’ve tried this in the past and ended up either watching too many (and getting overwhelmed) or having too long a pause and forgetting where we are. So we’re going to pretend it’s on TV and watch one episode a week so that we can pretend America has a President we love.
- We are going to not buy any new books for ourselves and read/reread books we already own. Not only will this save some money but it will encourage us to read more and spend less time scrolling through Facebook.
- We’re both going to go to the gym so that we can fit into all our clothes again.
It’s a lot, but most of these are fairly small and fairly achievable. Maybe.
Have a great 2018!
antonyjcbutcher 