I previously told the story of how my ambitious plan of a year long journey came to be. What I didn’t tell you was the actual plan. What was this year of self discovery going to entail? Well, welcome to 12 months of self care: the plan! I’ve broken the year down into 12 months and each month gets a new focus. Every focus falls into a more general category of improving myself either physically or mentally, with some doing both. It’s important to note that in order for this crazy plan to work I had to write down why I wanted to do this and exactly what I had hoped to accomplish. So, what do I want to accomplish?

1. To discover a sense of who I am, outside of motherhood. I love being a mother and I love being a wife, but I am so much more than that as a person. Yet, lately, it’s hard to see myself as anything but Mother or Wife.
2. Create and achieve more happiness in my life. I understand that you cannot just simply wish for happiness, you need to seek it out and reign it in.
3. Become physically and mentally healthier by challenging and pushing myself.
4. Find, appreciate, and cultivate new sources of joy. This goal sounds similar to the previous goal of creating more happiness in my life, but when I think of cultivating joy I think on a smaller scale. I think appreciation, thankfulness, and attentiveness to the small everyday things that we tend to rush through or overlook.
5. And finally, with every continuing month, I hope to decrease my overall anxieties and self doubt, while increasing my self worth and confidence.

In order to pursue the goals I outlined above I created 12 areas of improvement to focus on. Each month will be concentrating on one of the 12 focuses. I hope that with every subsequent month I don’t simply abandon the previous month’s focus but rather shift to the new focus, while keeping the things that worked well from the previous months’. Is this making sense at all? If you’re following me, you’re amazing, if not, don’t worry about it because I can sometimes barely comprehend it myself.

The 12 categories of focus are (in no particular order – as I do them I will edit this post into the correct order):

1. Medical compliance
2. Exercise
3. Create order/ decrease clutter both physically and mentally
4. Gratitude & acceptance of things I cannot change
5. A month of doctor appointments that I usually put off
6. Relationships
7. Create
8. Self confidence & self worth
9. Learn something new
10. Take a risk
11. Physical appearance
12. Limiting screen time & technology influences

You may be reading these ideas thinking, “What does that even mean?” and that’s okay! They are very general statements and I cannot wait to expand on what each idea means and what each month entails. I hope you will follow along for this journey I’m taking. But more importantly, I hope it will inspire you to make time for self improvement and self care.