HEYO friends. Happy new year. I hope you are feeling refreshed and excited about what this new year may bring you. One of my goals for the new year was to write more blogs because I truly enjoy sharing about my life. Also, the idea of a new year and resolutions REALLY stresses me out. So if you’re like me, and get stressed every time a new year rolls around, don’t worry, it’s normal. It’s just a good idea to think of some areas in your life where you want to grow. Maybe you want to be better on LinkedIn, talking to your grandparents more, or even making more soups this year. It does not have to be this huge life-changing resolution. Start small ?

As I am approaching graduation at Belmont, I feel a lot of stress and anxiety mostly. There is so much pressure! So much pressure to be successful and figure your life out. If you’re not about to graduate I am sure you can relate in some way. The future can be scary!

This is normal. The first thing I keep reminding myself of is to start being present. I had a friend text me this the other day. I was ranting on and on about how I was so stressed, and I am going to get cut off and blah blah. She said, “it is so important to be present in this season of your life.”  She was so right. I think a lot of us are preparing for the future, which is good, but we also need to live in the moment and enjoy where we are right now. Some of us are in the moments when we used to dream and pray about.

I also have noticed, when I start getting anxious about life/ future plans/anything… my mind starts spiraling with a million negative thoughts. This is so bad!! We must start being positive and feeding our brains happy things. If you need to go get ice cream, call your mom, or go on a walk. DO IT. For instance, you might be getting yourself all worked up because you have so much on your plate, you have no idea how you are going to get everything done. First, recognize the difficulty or stress. Next, you must figure out how you are going to overcome this. Maybe you could wake up earlier, or ask your boss for some tips on how to achieve this goal of yours. We can do hard things friends. 

The next thing I want to implement in this new year is just being really intentional in my conversations with people. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am talking to someone and they are on their phone. & to be quite honest I am sure I’ve done this to many people. We live in a society where everything is on the screen in front of us. What would it look like if we started to implement that in our friendships? Actually listening in our conversations. I’ll be on the phone with someone while also working out or making dinner. I’m half listening, and I am telling myself I am just multitasking. LOL NO. Your friends and family deserve your full attention. 

As I was thinking about being intentional with my time, I decided to look up the definition. Intentional means that you are doing things in your life with intention and purpose (shocker) but….. in order to feel happy and fulfilled. You are actively doing things to make yourself happier. As I began to think about what I fill my days with, a lot of the time I am just doing something to please people or because I have to do something. SHOCKER!! This is not being intentional. This might come across as a little selfish to some of you, but I think that is simply okay. Some of us need to put our own needs first sometimes. Some of you are so exhausted from a 9-5, you don’t even know how to be happy because your entire day is crammed-packed. Let’s first, start out by carving out some time for ourselves.