I’m not a huge believer in New Year’s resolutions, so much as I believe in every day commitments. I tend to do my “this year I will…” on my birthday–because that’s the day the world has dedicated to being all about me. Since it’s not my birthday, I didn’t really have any resolutions to really speak of.
But I did want to try and create certain habits for myself–and one of those habits is to connect more with more people. I’d like to be more present in the day to day, and to measure that, I’m using social media.
One of my few posts last year was about starting treatment for a disabling flare of Psoriatic Arthritis. That’s still a real thing. I’m on a steady injection schedule of Cosentyx, and see my rheumatologist quarterly, and we set goals of a sort. In September my doctor was thoroughly upset because my weight had gone up and my arthritis was severe–more than it had been since he had seen me. Following that visit, I decided I needed to be more serious about changing my lifestyle.
There’s a difference between knowing your lifestyle needs to change and knowing your lifestyle needs to change. In October, after carefully reviewing my schedule, my budget, and my goals, I invested in a LA Fitness membership and a personal trainer. To be honest, I didn’t realize the difference between knowing and knowing until I was two sessions in with my trainer, after I had begun to exercise regularly, and to exercise regularly with an intent to see improvement. Somewhere in the middle of that, I realized where my body had physically come to, and how much needed to change to get out of that place. Right now, healthy living is a big part of my focus.
Another part of my focus is using my time wisely. The most abundant resource I have had for a very long time is flexible time. Even at work, with a 40 hour work week, I have a lot of time to fill on my own. I recognize I have been continually blessed to have flexible time the way I do, and I very much feel I should be accountable for how I use it. Some days I do spend more time letting myself waste it, where I’ve watched too many movies, or read too many books. TV is my worst vice. It really is. All it takes is one episode, and I’m hooked on a binge. I can’t have video streaming apps on my phone, otherwise I am so unproductive.
Then there’s the art. I don’t like what I’ve become in that regard. I admit, I’ve been pretty burnt out from all the hoping and chasing, and the pressure to feel like I need more training, so when my friend Niki suggested that I wasn’t as serious about it as I say I am, he was right. So this year I’ve been marinating on why that is, and whether or not this non-seriousness is a permanent thing. I realized sometime over the summer that I have not really felt creatively inspired in a long time, and I spent a good while since just watching myself react, to determine if that part of me was really gone.
The good news is that it is not gone. That whole journey is content for more posts on other days.
Aside from that, 2017 also included two of my sisters getting married (both in April), and a few callings at church that I spent some significant time on.
I’m really looking forward to 2018 as a whole, however. Benjamin will be home from his mission in Bacolod, Philippines, my aunt is coming to the states for the first time to work (from the Philippines), my mother is planning to retire from Alaska Airlines, my sister is going to graduate from BYU…who knows what else will happen.
Emma Blanco 