Progress

Everything is a work in progress. The amount of opportunities available for one to work towards becoming their best self are endless. However this idea of reaching one's best self may be a difficult concept to feel possible to complete. Everyday is a new opportunity to work towards becoming better. Finding the best version of oneself is possible, as long as perfection is not the end goal and change is still an accepted possibility. The only constant in life is change.

As someone who struggled with perfectionism and OCD I had a really difficult time figuring out who I was supposed to be and what I was meant to do. I wanted to do everything the "right" way, whatever that meant was up to my brain to decide. I wanted to be "normal" and not be seen as "weird" when compared to others. To get through this phase of my life I had to realize that "normal" and "weird" do not exist, perfection does not exist and comparing myself to others is unreasonable. Every person is entirely different and within the past six months I've been trying to embrace my own "crazy" and realize that I am enough just the way I am. Read the March post Never Enough for more on being enough.

For the past six months I have been more focused on taking care of myself and having balance within my life. It has not always been easy as sometimes I still choose negative behaviors instead of positive ones. For the past few weeks I was working on writing a post about why those with food allergies and mental illnesses may feel that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to friendships and relationships. I don't think I will be able to finish writing that or post it, as it is around an unreasonable thought process.

Just because I have food allergies, asthma, anxiety and other things does not mean that I am not capable of having healthy friendships/relationships. I realized that I have accept and love myself first. And sometimes this is not always an easy task, but by taking care of myself, I am appreciating myself more than I have before. Read the February post Love Yourself about when and why I started this process.

By giving myself time to take care of myself I have found more balance in my life.

A few things I do for self care and balance:

1. At the end of each week I plan out the next week. I only go a week at a time in my plans, as if I go too far ahead I get stressed and worried about the future. I schedule in time in my planner for everything including classes, work, exercise, events and seeing friends.

2. I also have a weekly white board where I plan out which days of the week I will do laundry and clean, as this helps me from getting overwhelmed. I was also planning outfits and meals for each week for a little while, but for some reason planning these two things I can never seem to keep up with.

3. In addition to my planner and weekly white board I also use a digital calendar that is shared with my family so I don't have to tell them my schedule everyday. And if my planner isn't with me I can refer to the digital calendar. I usually have a lot of dates very far out in my digital calendar as I tend to use it each week to plan out my weekly schedule in my planner.

4. Almost every morning I meditate for about ten minutes using the Headspace app. They have courses that are usually 10 to 30 days long each. If I miss a day I don't worry too much about it, but I try to do it everyday.

5. I write down one thing every day that was a good thing that I am grateful for. This way when I'm feeling down I can go through the pages in my planner and find all the good things.

6. I try to exercise 2-5 times a week! Exercise helps me manage my stress and I usually feel happier after exercising. I usually do group exercise classes and I try to take a variety of different ones. My favorite is Country Fusion, but I also enjoy yoga, barre, Zumba, turbo kick and basic ballet. Recently since I was in a car accident I have been in physical therapy and just started yoga and Country Fusion again this week.

By taking care of myself and finding balance within my life I am making progress towards becoming the best verison of the person I hope to be someday with the understanding that being open to change is still important.

#countryfusion