Happy New Year: Remember to Breathe

As countdowns to the new year begin around the world, I want to wish you all a happy and safe new year.

This time of year seems to make stress creep to the surface – the events to plan and attend, family and friends to appease, work to get done, studies to think about. It creates a little toxic cocktail in our proverbial ‘shit we’re carrying’ cups so that they start to bubble and fizz, threatening to completely bubble over.

A few of my friends have spoken to me about being in this state of mind. They’ve all called it a ‘burn out.’

Read More: Anxiety; how I’m learning to understand my brain 

It appears that in situations like these, we all do the same thing. We hype ourselves up with excitement and motivation for completing X task. We take on many other things as well; life is dynamic, and our attention is stretched across a number of things. As the year draws to a close, the pressure to get these things done also grows and the number of little side jobs yearning for our attention increases.

We start to become overwhelmed and lose the insight that we usually have. We no longer see our achievements and how far we have come. Instead, our attention is taken up by all the things that need to be done. It’s not long before the pressure clouds our judgement and our minds start to race and the list of things that need to get done seems impossible.

My friends and I seem to have this habit of  escaping within ourselves and spiralling. We get so caught in the weeds that we forget that we are on the right track. It is at these times when we need to be reminded of all of the comforting words that we all know to be true. So let me remind you also.

We all put unnecessary pressure on ourselves far too often. We forget to slow down and pace ourselves in order to align what we’re doing with what we can do. We forget that there is only so much that we can do and that we function at our best when we do what we can. Remember that you are an intelligent, motivated, beautiful person who is pushing themselves into becoming incrementally more crazy. Take a deep breath and take heed of your own successes. Look back at the year and reflect on all of your achievements.

If you are struggling with external pressure from all the nagging and ‘advice-giving’ of your extended family, take a moment to compose yourself. Remind yourself that you are where you are because that’s where you want to be. You are working your way to the next best place, and no one will truly know where that is but you. Remember that although you are allowed to take advice and constructive criticism from anyone, you should only ever let yourself truly be influenced by the opinions of people you respect. If a person is not the sort of person you want to be, their opinion should not impact your world view or how you feel about yourself. Let their ramblings flow in on ear and out the other. You don’t need to retain any of it or feel guilty about ignoring it. You do you, baby!

Read More: How to Fix a Broken Heart – Or Why Nothing Can Keep You Down (one of my favourite posts ever!)

Remember that you, my friend, are on a wonderful path that is not going to go anywhere. It is more than okay to slow down, take a sip of water, go out on that picnic, hang out with those friends, see that movie, and go on that walk. That wonderful path that you are on is not going anywhere; your road is not going to suddenly disappear if you pause. Look back at how far you have come and be proud.

And don’t worry about new year’s resolutions. Every passing moment gives us the opportunity to start afresh – feel free to make resolutions whenever you want!

Love to you and yours – but today, mostly you. You deserve it xx

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