A fresh start

I'm writing this from my bed, with a knee brace on and it definitely wasn't how I planned to kick off 2018. In fact, I had my scheduled packed, and I was loving it. Laying in bed does give you a lot of time to reflect because let me tell you, after a day of not being able to do much, you become very bored and frustrated with how limited you are. You can either watch Netflix, read a book (in my case it's currently Get Your Shit Together, and I'll be soon moving on to You Do You, because Sarah Knight is a genius), or think. I've been focusing on the latter (we'll ignore the fact that I'm emotionally involved in TOWIE now). 

I know almost everyone moans about the whole 'new year, new me thing' and, in a way, I agree, we can't change who we are. We can, however, improve ourselves and work on being the best possible versions of ourselves, and that's something I'll be focusing on a lot more this year. I like the idea of a fresh start, a clean state. And although a lot of my plans are having to be put on 'pause' for the time being, there are a few I can start working on from the comfort of my own bed.

Work on my mental health - with what happened to me last year, my MH went down the drain. Since about October though, I have been getting better, and it's one of my main priorities this year. Anxiety sucks, depression sucks, EDs suck. Whether you're struggling with one of the things I mentioned, or with one of the many other MH difficulties - it's okay, and I believe this year we'll become stronger, healthier and happier people. I need to take my time to relax and slow down, and 'schedule in' some self-care time every week, because I've been really abandoning it. On a slightly related note, these Neal's Yard products are really helping me sleep. I use the Balancing Room Spray few minutes before I attempt to sleep, and I rub a little bit of the Bergamot Oil on my wrists.

Expand my knowledge of feminism - I think all of us should focus on this a little bit, as it's still such an issue in our day to day life. And for me, whether this will be through charity work (something I definitely want to do more of this year, too) or whether it's simply by reading books and educating myself, this will also be a very important thing for me this year. If you have anything that you can recommend, please let me know!

Be a better friend - I think that's one thing that can always be improved, either by keeping in touch with long distance friends, or actually going for that coffee I've been talking about since 2011. I do think I'm a good friend, I think everyone does? But at the same time, I know I could do things differently and show people that mean a lot to me that I care. On this note, I'm also VERY excited to read Lily Pebbles book once it comes out on International Women's Day! 

Get rid of toxic people - on a very opposite note, I also need to do a friend 'clear out'. The way someone is around us often impacts not only our mood, but our behaviour, too. This year is definitely the year I start focusing on that more.

Focus more on the blog - I love blogging, I really enjoy doing it. Having laid in bed for the past few days I've come up with a few good posts, but I'm currently being held back by my ability to take photos. I only stood up for 5 minutes today to try and take the photo above, and it's still shit. But I needed it for the post. So, once my knee is working properly again, I'll be scheduling some time every week to take loads of photos at once, and put aside some time for writing. I want to get involve with more Twitter chats and Facebook groups, so need to do research on that, too. I also need to up my Instagame, it's gone downhill - but then again, the algorithm isn't enticing me to, anyway. 

Organise my life and save money - if you know me, you know I'm a mess. I'm a busy mess, and that's the worst kind. Everything I own is scattered, and my head is always all-over the place. I bought myself a planner (see above) and I'm actually planning on writing everything I do in it. I run late a lot, and believe me, it's not for the lack of trying, and that's something that I need to stop doing this year, too. It would probably be a good idea to sort through all my letters and papers, too. I'm also awful with money, and I really want to go inter-railing this summer (I've even started planning for it, look at the new, organised me!) so I need to put away money every month so I can travel comfortably and not worry.

So, here's my little list of how I'm planning on working on bettering myself in 2018. I'm of course going to try and eat a little healthier (goodbye McDonald's lunches), exercise a little more (proof is in the pudding here, my knee probably wouldn't have given way if I was stretching more often than twice a year) and just generally be a little bit better. I'm also super intro astrology lately, so I'd love to expand my knowledge of that. Have you made any 2018 resolutions? If so, what are they?

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