If someone had asked me when I started this journey how I thought it would end, never in a million years could I have predicted the degree of change in my life balance. What started out as an attempt to find more "me time," gradually transformed into one of the best experiences of my life. "52 Weeks Of Me" has changed me; I'm different, I'm better, and most importantly, I'm happier.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that this journey wasn’t simply about the amount of “hours” I was spending doing things for myself, it was about so much more; it was about mental, emotional, and physical health. To make sustainable change and achieve true authentic happiness, I was required to overcome significant challenges, which meant focusing on the things I could control while simultaneously ignoring the things I couldn't.
If you've been following my journey from the beginning, you may have noticed a definitive shift in the content of my blog posts. The first few weeks were spent documenting tangible things like shopping sprees, time spent with the kids, decorating for the holidays, etc., but as time went on, my focus shifted to more intangible things such as patience, gratefulness, authenticity, savoring the moment, and finally the concept of taking it easy on yourself. Although it was more challenging to work on these intangibles, I found even minor improvements were bringing immeasurable benefits to my life when compared to their more tangible counterparts.
It was in these later weeks that a real and lasting change began to happen. When it comes to self-care, spending time getting a massage or a facial is certainly beneficial, but spending time building a positive mindset, seeing the best in people, and living each day to it's fullest potential is when real transformation begins to happen. While I'm still far from perfect and have so much more to learn, I do believe I've come a long way; I'm calmer, I'm more relaxed, and I'm generally a lot happier. I find myself actually living every day and taking the time to really enjoy it, rather than rushing through it just to start all over again the next time the sun rises.
While the 52 weeks might be officially over, I'm committed to staying on track and will forever be looking for new ways to apply the practice of self-care. With that said, I did want to take a quick moment to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for the support you've given me throughout this process. I especially want to thank my husband who's been proofreading each of my weekly posts, which has enabled me to write freely without worrying about grammar and wordsmithing; this has been an enormous help because I know I couldn’t have done this alone.
