Hello Y’all! All the way from North Texas! I hope you are doing well in your corner of the world. My guess is we’re over the Christmas and New Year celebrations and the majority of the Christmas decor has been stowed away….I say ‘majority’ because I still have one more tree up and a few Christmas trinkets littered across the house that I’m not ready to give up just yet. Just like lightning, we are in February and so far so good. The cold is still here and I’m thankful that I still get to layer on for a few more days before the Texas heat starts to return.

Starting the Year Off Being Thankful!

Something I recently started doing was taking the time to write a thankful list in January. Thinking deeply about everything positive that occurred in the past year and articulating it on paper. Being a visual person, If I can see it, then it stays at the front cortex of my brain and I believe this is helpful even if you’re not visual. The next thing I do is create another list of the things I would like to do, work on, or accomplish in the new year. This is not a New Year’s Resolution. It is me putting a list of things into a time frame; which makes it easier to accomplish or work towards.

Spirituality: One thing we all need more of is to be grounded. Grounded in faith and that is something that needs improvement, especially for yours truly in this new year. Committing time to my schedule on a daily basis does my soul a lot of good and keeps me centered.

Professional Advancement: Learning or improving your knowledge of your work or business – whatever that means to you. Reading a chapter a day. Joining a book club. Attending seminars that are free or easy on the budget.

Rest: Scheduling time to rest. Taking naps to make up for long hours spent working. We all work for a living and deadlines do exists. However, giving your body a rest to recover is of the utmost importance.

Meal prepping & Supplementation: Taking the time to cook more healthy meals. Portion control. Natural supplementation. Taking your health seriously will reduce the amount of downtime your body has because you’re recovering from ill health or those nasty bugs that go around throughout the year.

Time Management: Being able to schedule and complete work/life-related tasks to reduce last-minute stress caused by procrastination.

Self Care: A lot of times we are spread too thin by demands from others whether it be family, friends, work, or school. Learning the art of saying ‘No’ is one aspect that will vastly reduce stress. Putting yourself first is not always a bad thing as we have subliminally been taught …and this affects women more than our male counterparts which is unfortunate because you have people walking around empty and depleted because when opportunistic people see that you are a ‘giver’, being taken advantage of is the order of the day.

Finding Community: Sometimes we think we are alone in the world based on what we may be experiencing but the real reason is we lack community and safe people. As human beings, we were never meant to exist alone or go through life alone. There is healing when you are surrounded by people who see you, care about you, and accept you as you are. Researchers say that you live longer when you thrive in a community with other good and healthy people. Now, if you don’t have this, it’s never too late to start somewhere. Find community in hobbies that you love. In church. In your profession. In travel of other healthy groups. Even if you don’t have family close by, you can always create your own. Folks, the last time I checked, there are over 7 billion people on the planet. Get up and get out of the house and find your community.

Folks, 2025 will be a great year and I believe it will be amazing for you too but you have to be able to find balance and be in tip-top condition to ride the wave and take advantage of all the year has to offer. Until I come around the bend where the sun is always shining and the flowers are in full bloom…I remain

Periwinkle Starr

P.S.: Photos are culled from FreePik and the World Wide Web.