Hey there, my friends!! Happy new year!! Like so many of you, I am beyond thrilled that 2020 is behind us. I hope that a new year will bring with it new, positive, and healthier things. I hope that this past week has been kind to you and has treated you well. Since it’s the new year, I figured that now would be a good time to talk with you about new year resolutions and fibromyalgia.
Ever since I’ve been dealing with fibromyalgia, I have not been a fan of goal setting because when you have fibromyalgia it is so difficult to balance how hard to push and when to not push. Lots of people are making resolutions like losing weight or eating healthier. The thing is that those goals aren’t really made to help you achieve them. They aren’t specific enough. How do you plan to lose weight? Are you going to work out three times a week? How do you plan to eat healthier? Are you going to stop eating out for three nights of the week and cook at home? For all of these reasons, we need to be more specific. Unfortunately, resolutions don’t provide the steps that you need to reach those goals. Goal setting is challenging for those who have fibromyalgia because we don’t break the steps small enough for us to reach those goals. We need to create the structure in our lives so that it is easier to accomplish those goals.
If you asked me what the secret to goal making is, I would tell you that making habits are essential. Making habits help you automate things, a bit like a computer. For example, I have a habit of closing doors (and often locking them) behind me. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it half of the time and I often am on autopilot while I’m closing a door after I’ve passed through it. Habits can look like routines, like brushing your teeth during your morning or evening routines. For those of you who follow me on social media, you know that typically after I’ve been up for a few hours that I practice yoga almost every day. This was something that was (and sometimes still is) a huge challenge. I hurt too much to move. The last thing that I wanted to do was to move my body for a while. So, instead, I decided that if I wanted to exercise, then I needed to change my mind as to how that looked like. I needed to be okay with not doing things that I knew hurt, which is most cardio. I have found that it is not so painful for me to stretch instead. Before I knew it, I was looking up yoga videos for chronic pain. Since then, I’ve made it a part of my routine to practice yoga every day. My day feels really off when I don’t do yoga. I’ve been in a flare for a week now and I didn’t practice yoga for two of those days because of how exhausted I have been. Today was my first day back on the mat and even though it was exhausting, I’m really glad that I did it because I really needed a good stretch. It would be a lot harder for me to practice yoga if it wasn’t a part of my daily routine.
Because I’m still dealing with a flare, I’m going to keep this blog post short. I hope that you will understand. I HIGHLY recommend that if you want to make goals for this new year that you listen to a podcast by Tami Stackelhouse called “Episode 27: Goal-Setting and Habits with Fibromyalgia”. I’ll put the link to the podcast (and her website) in my resources down below. I found it to be a very inspiring listen and it inspired me to write this post last week. Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my blog!! I hope that you enjoyed it. Please feel free to applaud this blog post (where the hands clap together) and comment down below. I’d love to hear from you. I hope that you will have a great week! Stay safe out there! Until next week, my friends! :-) ❤
— Moriah
Resources:
- Happy New Year 2021 Image: <a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/2021">2021 Vectors by Vecteezy</a>
- Healthy Habits Image: https://www.hiclipart.com/free-transparent-background-png-clipart-psemk
- PNG Image “Thank You”: <a href=’https://pngtree.com/so/thank-you'>thank you png from pngtree.com</a>
- Fibromyalgia Podcast by Tami Stackelhouse Episode 27: https://fibromyalgiapodcast.com/podcast/episode-27-goal-setting-and-habits-with-fibromyalgia/
