The first week of January is always the toughest.

Far from all the glitter and fireworks of 1st, we find ourselves with way too much to do and few plans on how to do it.

Usually, we quickly realise that one thing is to wish for self-care, wellbeing and a way better work-life balance and another is to actually put those words into ACTION.

The 1st of January has a tendency to blind us with its infinite possibilities and romantic connotations of ‘something new’, ‘something better’ and a brand New Year where we can finally find ourselves.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and if you feel like this is the year you will finally learn how to cook or climb Mount Everest, you should definitely go for it.

However, if you are a little like us and tend to put way too much pressure on yourself, I have something that could work slightly better.

Far from focusing on unrealistic resolutions and punishing ourselves when we fail to meet our incredibly high expectations, we have decided to focus on what we would like to bring into The New Year.

…and for us, this is the warm, fuzzy feeling of novelty and hope we get every January 1st.

It’s a bit like opening Pandora’s box all over again. Once Pandora, the nutter, had opened the box and let all the most horrifying things take a swirl and entertain the world, she also realised that, at its very bottom, there was something else she had completely ignored and forgot to release: 

hope.

Pandora forgot, we forget every day…

Life plays its role, of course. It’s never flat or boring and there’s always something that demands our attention first, maybe not as horrifying as what was in Pandora’s box but still exhausting; we work, we see friends, we work, even more, we take care of family and god forbids, something else more serious happens, we burn out. Hope is not something we tend to feel during the year, it’s not something we chase, we take it for granted and we only remember it’s there when the clock resets on 1st January and we feel like we are born again. At least, for a few hours because the following day, January starts again for real and everyone screams, tweets, and posts about the dread of going back to work and January blues.

Funny how the day we feel everything is possible falls during the month when most people suffer from mental health issues.

That’s why our only plan, our only wish for 2019 is not to question who we are and remember that sense of hope we get after we do something kind to ourselves:

How we feel after only five minutes of meditation every day

How we feel after we don’t cancel plans with our friends

How we feel after we start something new, a relationship, a class (not necessarily in that order)

How we feel after a good session of gym or swimming

How we feel after we say no to something we don’t want to do or have little care or time for

How we feel after we finish a good book

How we feel after we write, make notes of a dream we had.

How we feel after we cook a good roast and spend time with those we love.

@ Miss Squiggles, we have worked with different people involved in self-care, mindfulness and wellbeing and will continue to bring you a great new array of exciting content for 2019 as well; which we hope will inspire, motivate and give you that little boost for your New Year.

Here’s to 2019 being the year we don’t completely forget that every day is new and deserves to be started with a little hope:

Follow our journey on our social media: you can find us on Instagram @squiggles_comms and annamaria_sgueglia and Twitter (@SquigglesBlogs).

Happy New Year!