Stand up to YOU in 2017!

We are now well into the first month of 2017!  The saying, “Time waits for no one” is ringing so true for me this year.

Instead of taking my usual approach and writing out New Year’s resolutions I have decided to look at this year a little differently.  Every time I do something that makes me feel bad, awkward, uneasy or uncomfortable I’m going to confront that sucker!  Negative patterns BE GONE!

These are not BIG obvious things, I’m choosing to focus on the little things.

As I write my blog this evening I am enjoying a glass of bubbly along with a bowl of salt and vinegar chips.  I am also dipping the chips into the bubbly, just like Marilyn Monroe did in the Seven Year Itch.

So this brings me right to negative pattern #1. Feeling bad for indulging in treats!  Anytime I have put myself on a diet or decided to eliminate a food group all together I feel deprived.  As soon as I go back to the way things were I overindulge and feel sick and ashamed.  Forget that, I am enjoying the chips and the bubbly and I don’t need the whole bag or the whole bottle, I just want to enjoy the little treat.

Negative pattern #2.  Hanging on to things I don’t use because I paid “good money” for them.  I am embarrassed to say that last year I had a lipstick with a broken lid in my purse for an entire year.  I loved the colour and every time I wanted to apply the lipstick it was covered in dust particles from my purse.  I never used it, I put it back in my purse and chose a different lipstick.  This lipstick soiled the inside of my purse and when I would grab anything out of the purse I would have a lipstick stain on my hand or it would be stuck to other items in the purse.  Writing this down makes me think that I actually felt I deserved this torture somehow.  No, I certainly didn’t.  Today I cleaned out that purse and the lipstick met it’s new best friend, the garbage can!

Negative pattern #3. Getting overwhelmed and feeling disorganized.  I suppose this one could be a categorized as a big one.  I do have days, weeks and months where I feel like there is no way I can accomplish all of the things I need to.  I am officially giving myself permission to accomplish what I can and trust that the rest will be completed when the time is right.  My good friend Steve told me that some days you need to look at your life like a doctor’s office.  The patient comes in, the problem is dealt with and on to the next.  It’s best to try and close off as much as you can in the moment, rather than constantly revisiting.

I really want you to love yourself this year!  Be proud of who you are and every day ask yourself: “Is this situation making me feel good or bad?” If it makes you feel bad be brave and change it.  If you don’t know how that’s okay.  Write it down and come back to it, the answer always comes.  It is inherent in all of us that we have the answers.  Listen to your own voice, that’s the one you can always trust.

Please let me know in the comments what you are going to do this year to show yourself how important you are to yourself!

Monica XO