Goals For My Mental Health In 2023

2022 was a year I took a step back.

A step back from self-care.

A step back from self-love.

A step back from my mental health.

I feel it.

I feel further away from myself than I have in five years. A discovery that not only hurts but disappoints. I made my self-love journey a priority for so long and then I just walked away.

I said hurtful things to myself.

I treated my body badly.

I believed that I didn't deserve the things I was receiving.

All of these habits made it harder to look at myself in the mirror with love.

I know and understand the devastating effects that this has on me and now I am back to reignite the passion I have for myself.

LOOKING AT 2022 WITH LOVING EYES

2022 was a year of extreme ups and extreme downs. Moments when I didn’t think that my dreams were going to come true and moments when I was on top of the world and nothing could go wrong.

I have learned throughout the years that there is no reason to have regrets and so I jump into everything I do with both eyes wide open and sometimes (most of the time) with little planning. If I think too much, I will talk myself out of everything.

I focused on all of the external pieces of my life that I forgot to continue to nurture the internal pieces that so desperately needed me. So I look back on 2022 with eyes that are filled with compassion and tears.

How can I make 2023 more about the pieces inside than I do about the pieces outside?

How can I continue to move my life forward by healing on a deeper level?

How can I fall even more in love with myself than I have been in the past?

How can I make 2023 a year where growth is the only option?

I can acknowledge what I didn’t do in 2022 and know that in order for 2023 to be better mentally, I need to do the things that I didn’t do in 2022.

MENTAL HEALTH INTENTIONS FOR 2023

To be accountable to myself, I have found that when I share my goals and intentions for everything in my life, I tend to stick with them even more. This blog post is my declaration to myself to take control of my mental health in 2023.

It is going to be a little bit scary because I want to do things that I haven’t done in the past but in order to move forward even more, I need to do things differently.

Drink more water

I will be the first to admit that I am not always the greatest at drinking my water. I have gotten much better in the past month or so but it is still something that I am striving to work on more. My co-worker gave me a beautiful travel mug for Christmas that I have been using.

Intentional movement

I grew up playing sports and I loved every second of it. I have realized that as I have gotten older, I don’t enjoy going hard with exercise. I absolutely love doing yoga and pilates. I want to be more intentional with the exercise that I do. I will be adding swimming to my routine as well. I absolutely LOVE being in the water. Different ways that I am going to add even more intentional movement into my life…

• Hiking in the mountains

• Walking through my neighbourhood

• I’d love to give Tai Chi a try

Increase my daily silent meditations

For the month of January, I am doing 15 minutes of silent meditation every night. Every month I am going to add five minutes to that. Once the weather gets nice and warm again, I am also going to make it a point to go outside on my front deck area and meditate in the morning sun.

Eat out less

I won’t lie, I struggle with this. I do enjoy eating out as it gives me a break from having to do all of the work that comes with cooking and feeding a family. I really want to focus on eating out less and start to have more fun in the kitchen.

I love cooking and I find that I don’t always remember that. I want to once again bring my kids into the kitchen and have them even take control of what we are cooking and the entire process.

If you have recipes that you love, leave them below! I'd love to give them a try.

Read at least 20 minutes per day

I love reading but I tend to go in spurts. There are days that I just can't get enough reading in and then there are days when I just don't want to read at all.

I have reading as part of my intentional morning routine along with guided meditation and journaling. Since being sick, I have stopped my morning routine because I figured sleep was needed more. I am going to wait a few more days before I start this up again.

Do you have any book recommendations?

Hire a house cleaner

This is something I need to do desperately. My days are so filled with things that I need to do that I get super stressed trying to get everything done.

I am hoping that this will take a few things off of my plate. Plus having a bonus of an extra clean house will be awesome.

Buy myself flowers

There is nothing better than fresh flowers in a house. My husband doesn't often buy me flowers, so I buy them myself. Having fresh flowers on my counter instantly makes me smile.

Take 1 day off per week from work and business things

I work a lot. Some may even say that I am a workaholic. I love what I do and for the most part, it doesn't always feel like I am working. However, I really need to take a day to hang out with my kids.

For Christmas, I gave my kids 12 monthly family date days. We are going on our first one this weekend.

My oldest is already in grade 10 which means our time is now limited before he leaves the house. We want to make some family memories before he leaves.

Monthly dates with my best friend

Neither one of us get to spend as much time together as we would like. We are both so busy with everything else. For 2023, I really want to carve out time monthly for us to just hang out, chat, and enjoy a night together.

Stay off my phone at least an hour before bed

I already said that I may be a workaholic and that usually means working on my phone later than I should.

Once it becomes 10 pm, my phone now goes into the Do Not Disturb mode. I no longer get notifications unless they are on my approved list of text messages. This has made a difference.

Focus on writing my book

This is on my mental health goals list because this book is my story. It is my memoir that I am working on. It has been extremely hard to write and for that reason, I have put off writing it.

I know that writing this book is going to help me heal on an even deeper level. I also know that there are people out there who need to hear my story. It will give others hope for healing and a belief that your past doesn’t define you.

This is the scariest thing that I want to accomplish in 2023.

Here are some effective ways to overcome the fear of sharing your story.

Those are the ten mental health goals that I am working towards in 2023. What goals are you working towards this year?

If you are ready to start your own blog, reach out as my blog coaching program, Blogology, starts again in March. I would love to help you start your own blog.