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Time to Get Up and Get Started!

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Positive Restarts

Why wait for the new year? Restart your goals now!

Traditionally, many people like to begin their new year with a list of resolutions, goals, or expectations for the coming year. They begin the year motivated and engaged in their goals for themselves, only to become frustrated when they “fall off the wagon” just a few weeks into the new year. This frustration often leads to self-doubt, anxiety, depression, or ruminating negative thoughts. The question to now ponder is:

“Why do we do this to ourselves?”

Having goals and expectations for ourselves are important. They are what guide us and encourage us to better ourselves, our situation, or our life. Determining how to make improvements or changes in our lives is essential for growth and happiness. So how do you set yourself up for continued success that is sustainable throughout the year? Check out the tips below. Then come back weekly for my tips for keeping the motivation going!

Strategies for setting Goals for yourself:

1. Make your resolutions achievable – don’t say that you will to go to the gym everyday when you don’t have the flexibility in your schedule. Start with going 2-3 x a week and increase when you can.
2. Set deadlines for yourself – If you want to achieve a goal, set a date on which you would plan to accomplish it.
3. Break long term goals into small goals with weekly tasks that work up to the larger overarching goal or expectation.
4. Schedule activities into your routine – If we don’t schedule it, we tend to not do it!
5. Allow yourself to be flexible – sometimes we need to change our plans, change it, don’t ditch it if you can help it.
6. Don’t belittle yourself if you need to adapt your expectation due to unforeseen obstacles.
7. Include others in your resolutions or expectations – having support will help you continue to work towards your goals.
8. Accept that sometimes we need to regroup, self-evaluate, and adapt in order to achieve our goals.
9. Mark milestones on a calendar to visually display your progress and success!
10. Celebrate your accomplishments and have fun!!

Here’s to a happy and successful New Year!

Obstacles

What is an obstacle? An obstruction that prevents or delays forward movement. Obstacles can be put in place by oneself or others.

What obstacles are preventing you from being your true self? Is it a job, skill, lack of motivation, poor self-esteem, or something else that keeps you “stuck” in place. You may ask yourself, “how can I move past this obstacle?” often preventing yourself from overcoming it.

When we face an obstacle we often feel like we are stuck and can’t move forward. Does this happen to you? If so, now what…

We always have options in life, however we don’t always see or seek them. Take time for yourself to determine a plan for moving beyond the obstacle. Use journal, meditation, talking it out, use art to envision it, or educate yourself on overcoming obstacles.

In the end, we always have a choice as to how to move beyond an obstacle….. We can go around them, go through them, or go over them. When we choice to face the obstacle and overcome it, we are on the path of change. We will feel better about the obstacle and more importantly, ourselves.

Take time to examine your obstacles and determine how to move past them, to the better you! Grab your tools and let’s go!

Contemplation by Cheryl

Defined by Merriam-Webster as a concentration on spiritual things as a form of private devotion; or an act of considering with attention.

What better time then during the dreary, dark, and cold days of winter to begin a contemplative practice! Many no longer wish to be “stuck inside with nothing to do.” What about beginning a new practice that will enable you to use this time to be reflective, relaxed, and rejuvenated!

Here’s a few practices you could incorporate into your day or week related to contemplation: daily prayers or mantras, yoga, meditation, journaling, art or music, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation techniques, and mindfulness activities.

To get started:

1. Set up a plan.
2. determine an activity that will serve you at this time
3. schedule a time to engage in the activity without interruptions
4. Become present and aware of you and your surroundings (becoming mindful of your inner and outer world.)
5. Engage in your practice
6. Take time to reflect on your experiences afterward. Create a memento of your journey that you can return to in the future when needed.

Most importantly, have fun and make sure it serves you.

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Finding Peace and Tranquility
C. Galligan, LMHC, LPC

Although our present lives are full of uncertainty and unknowns, we as humans have the ability to find calmness amidst the chaos if we allow ourselves to search for it. We all have the tools needed to obtain this well needed inner peace, we just need to be reminded on how to find and use them.
We are all creatures of habits and routines. A schedule and a clock define our waking and sleeping hours. Although there have been many days that we have wished our schedule away, developing a routine can help one find calmness amidst the chaos. Our internal clocks function best with consistent sleep patterns, exercise, meditation, and peaceful grounding. Developing a routine that includes these activities between time
to work can help calm the internal stress created by the external chaos we all now face. Calm thyself, calm thy world.
By including the daily practice of grounding with the earth (time outside), meditation, yoga, and exercise one can change the body’s reaction to stress. As one learns to focus on their breathing and reactions within their body, they will learn to focus on the present moment or here and now, ignoring other external stimuli. Learning to focus on
your body reduces the internal stress that is heightened by external events. Being present in the moment teaches the body to “drown out” external stimuli and focus on the peace within. This peace enables one to calm thy world, calm thyself.
Developing a new routine which incorporates peace-seeking activities will enable one to obtain peace and tranquility amidst the chaos. As we find the peace we hold within, we calm ourselves, those around us, and our world within our homes. When we all come together as a community, we will have the ability to help calm the world around us.