My August Intentions

I say this all the time, but I LOVE new beginnings. I love new year's, I love new weeks, new months - anytime that presents an opportunity to start over and start fresh, with a new mindset. So, I wanted to take some time and intentionally lay out some areas I want to focus on for August specifically. This is a little ritual I do every month and it gives me so much peace and motivation to show up as my best self every day - working towards whatever goals I set.

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Express gratitude daily

I've found myself feeling really burnt out lately. I am uninspired in my 9-5 job and that misery drains into other parts of my life. Plus, the daily chaos of raising a little one, working full time, trying to stay healthy, prioritize my marriage etc. how does anyone have enough time in the day to do everything?? I've been going through a period of just feeling blah and being a real bummer. But this month I really want to remember my "why". Why do I get out of bed daily? What is the motivation for my feet to hit the floor? Because truly when I look at it - I have an amazing husband/marriage, the most precious and sweet baby boy, an incredibly stable and safe job, I own a home, I drive a nice car, I am healthy, my family is healthy... I have absolutely nothing to be miserable about. And while everything may not be completely perfect, or I may not be exactly where I want to be in my career or whatever - I have so much to be thankful for and I want to focus on the bigger picture more this month.

Prioritize moving and nourishing my body

Somewhat related to my first point, I really want to focus on consistently moving and nourishing my body properly. I started going to hot yoga/Pilates about 2 months ago and have found so much joy and peace, surprisingly, in going to class and challenging my mind and body. I am definitely a beginner in both of these practices but I am really proud of myself for continuing to show up on the weeknights and early weekend mornings to carve out some time for me. I want to start rotating a few gym sessions back into the mix this month so I can have a bit more well-rounded fitness regimen.

I also am constantly working on eating healthy. I am a big fan of the 80/20 mindset and love going out to get food as a fun activity. But since I work from home every day, having quick, easy to make meals that are nutrient dense and macro friendly is key. I am going to focus on upping my greens/veggie intake as well as hitting 80-100g of protein daily.

Better communicate my feelings

As you can probably tell, I've been doing a lot of self-reflection lately. I am naturally an introvert and tend to bottle lots of things up inside - which is not incredibly healthy. I tend to suppress any negative feelings I have because I'm either too tired to discuss it in that moment or just want to avoid confrontation. But I've found that this method usually ends in me exploding over something small or I start to resent whoever is causing me to feel this way. Neither of those are good. So, this month I'm trying to do better in communicating, right then and there, when something upsets me or bothers me rather than "brush it off" or save it for later. People aren't mind readers and the only person I'm hurting by not speaking up about my feelings is myself.

Celebrate the in-betweens

There's a lot of monotony in the everyday routine. I sometimes find myself going through the motions and trying to get to the next thing on the list as quickly as possible. But when doing that, you miss the chance to see magic, joy, and spontaneity in the in-betweens. For example, I pick up Jackson from school every day. It's a task on my daily to do list and of course it's something I look forward to. But being the planner I am, I go to pick him up and then on the drive home I am planning dinner, if he needs a bath that night, what he's going to wear to bed, how I'm going to carve out time for my business etc... in focusing on those things I miss him pointing out all the "big buses" or pay attention to him counting to 10 (while skipping 3 and 6, but still). He's growing up so fast and my trying to speed to get the day done robs me of appreciating all the little moments of him growing up. I really am working on focusing on the little moments and celebrating all the interactions outside the camera roll or big event.

Those are my August intentions! I hope you take a few moments to reflect on what you'd like to focus on, celebrate, or perhaps improve this month. 31 days to make a difference or progress on whatever you choose. Don't waste it!