The only New Year’s resolution that I have ever kept and why you should try it
Do you make New Year resolutions? How many of them did you keep? In the past I would vow to lose weight, quit a bad habit, or to do something that I didn’t really want to do and always failed. Why did I fail? Because instead of adopting life changes I was forcing a drastic change that I wasn’t ready for. Trying to force an unrealistic plan of dietary changes and exercise became even more difficult once my chronic life began. After a while I just gave up on making New Year resolutions all together.
A few years ago I went through an extremely deep and dark depression. Pharmaceutical medications had failed me and although being med-free meant I was no longer experiencing their side-effects, I was miserable and without anything to reduce my physical pain. Thank God for marijuana!! Seriously, my life changed the moment I began medicating with it. My inflammation reduced, pain was more manageable, and most importantly I was able to climb out of that deep, dark pit that I had been living in. No longer living with daily depression or anxiety, I was able to see the beauty of my life, even on days that had to be spent in bed. A few months later as the New Year approached, I decided to make a New Year’s resolution.
The difference between this resolution and resolutions of past was that I chose to make a life change, not an unrealistic or drastic change. I wanted to resolve to do something that could be done no matter what my physical status was. So I resolved to find a reason to smile every day. My goal was to record a thought, activity, blessing, or reason for smiling every day. Some of my reasons were grander than others, but not a day went by that I didn’t find one reason to smile. Some days, just the fact that I was alive was reason enough to smile.
Some days were harder than others to find a reason to smile and because I recorded my reasons daily, on a bad day I would look back and remember the joy I had been able to find. By the year’s end I was able to recall the wonderful moments instead of dwelling on the disappointments my conditions caused. The first year I recorded my reasons on social media. The following years I wrote them down and put them in a smile jar. Another idea is to write your reasons on a calendar. This year I plan on keeping a simple journal. This journal will only be filled with daily reasons to smile and reasons to be thankful for the life I have.
Do you make a daily effort to remind yourself that life is filled with beautiful moments? Do you keep track of them? If so, do you use a jar, journal, etc…? Will you join me in resolving to find a reason to smile each day of 2017?
Wishing you a life filled with reasons to smile,
The Disabled Diva
