
Not gonna lie. 2021 really challenged my @fiveminutejournal attentiveness.
For the first time in three years I was not very good at doing my daily gratitude. I found myself trapped in a depression I couldn’t “Gratitude” Practice my way out of and everything I was in the pattern of doing for over 2 years came to a screeching halt.
I know what it’s like to feel stuck in a dark, unrelenting place. I was so burnt out from work, world noise, and the everyday negativity that seemed to permeate everyone and everything around me that I couldn’t see a way out…not even a way through. I got stuck in the “quicksand” of my hopeless thinking and all my positive practices slipped away.
- First to go: yoga.
- Then art/creativity.
- Months later by my Daily Gratitude Practice.
- Last was my daily water consumption (I always hit 64-80oz).
I finally admitted in October that I had hit bottom.
Here I have to say my therapist kept me from totally drowning. Weekly sessions, working on tiny “No’s” was truly my first step.
I had lost all sense of boundaries. I was an empty shell trying to still get through increasing stress at work, failing to be there as the mother, wife, and friend that I so love being. All because I had stopped “filling my cup.”
Peeps, I cannot stress enough the importance of caring for yourself FIRST.
I continue to learn this lesson the “Hard Way.”
Please, if you take away anything from my experience, let it be this:
- BOUNDARIES
- Acts of SELF-CARE
- GRATITUDE
Keep these ALWAYS.
Then GROWTH is possible. And growth is necessary to our human experience. Growth keeps us moving forward. Keeps our minds elasticity and our body strong.
I pray that I never give up my desire and joy in learning new thing: skills, lessons, practices.
May 2022 bring you back to yourself, if you were lost; bring you positive energy, if you are feeling stuck; love, if you are feeling alone.
Blessings❤️