I live in a building with 11 flats, and we have a lovely man named Sean who maintains the garden. I just walked past him on my way out to the coffee shop to write the blog and we had a little chat about the grass, and how the tree blocks out the sunlight and stops the grass growing, and we celebrated the bluebells coming out, but felt sad about the fact that they were early because, of course, it’s milder now in January than it used to be…
It was a lovely exchange and as I walked away he shouted ‘have a great year Hannah’ with so much fervour I really felt it. I felt lifted by the conversation and by the almost demand like invitation to have a great year. I shall try my hardest to meet that invitation, I shall try my best to make 2023 a great year.
And to begin with, I’ve been recalibrating. From January 1st I have been doing a bunch of self caring strategies that have helped me to feel more energised and less anxious than I was in December 2022. I have done a yoga class, had a massage, increased my vegetable intake by about 75% and reduced by alcohol intake by 100%. I’ve prioritised sleep, and slowly but surely I’ve cleared Christmas out of my flat. I’ve been doing a lot of journaling and reflecting too and realising what boundaries I want to put in place moving forward.
It has been a bit of a dramatic self-care 101 approach, and I wouldn’t normally advocate doing everything at once, but I definitely found myself needing to take some solid action. At a couple of points over Christmas I felt particularly anxious, and caught a gremlin that said ‘how can you support others around wellbeing when you don’t always feel ok?’ And I realised, that noticing when you’re not feeling ok, and then putting in measures to help yourself is all part of self-care and resilience. Of course we aren’t always feeling ok, life is a river with twists and turns and ebbs and flows, it isn’t always ok. Our job is to stay tuned in to ourselves so that we know when we need some kind of support in order to feel ‘ok-enough’ again.
Over the past few days I’ve already noticed a shift in my wellbeing. I imagine throughout 2023 I’ll feel all the things, sometimes it will feel great, and sometimes it will feel less so. But the promise I can make to myself is to just keep checking in and asking myself what I need.
So I invite you to check in with yourself, ask yourself what you need today, or this week, or for the rest of this month, and give yourself permission to action whatever that is.
With love as always, Hannah and Team Bird