You know that feeling you have when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve and you feel like you can start anew? That feeling can be awfully intimidating and exhilarating at the same time. To feel the pressure to shed old habits overnight can oftentimes set us up for failure which can eventually lead to shame. This year, I set a new intention. One without the shackling feeling that a resolution may previously have had. The intention was inspired by my last client of the year, Cassie of Candid Health, which is to take things one day at a time. We all have different ways of working through patterns and releasing what needs to be let go and in the past when I would find myself backtracking more than anything if I set a strict resolution up for myself. Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I march to the beat of my own drum and regardless of my work ethic where I could go about a busy schedule with no problem, it was never fulfilling and I would fall back hard to old patterns and escapism. The intention to take things one day at a time for a workaholic like me is the most freeing and self-loving act I can think of at this point in my life.

In allowing myself to take things one day at a time I allow myself to truly focus on being present. What does being present mean to me? Connecting to myself in a way that I’ve truly tried to escape in the past. Scheduling out my days to the very minute used to make me feel like a failure if I ever stopped. I would find small moments in the day to connect with myself and notice how terrible I felt. My beauty routines were always one of them. Washing my face has been my self-care practice since I was a pre-teen, it’s an exercise in self-love that I’ve never strained from, besides the unavoidable drunken night (a past escapism, though I was always surprised with myself on how often I did manage to do it). When I connect with myself during my skin regimen it’s my time to tune into how my body is connecting with my daily choices. It grounds me enough to realize that each day reflects different choices and over time it would help me shift towards a subtle change towards bettering myself.

As grateful as I am for my skin regimen, I realized that this self-care practice isn’t enough if I want to continuously expand towards my most authentic self. The good thing is that 2017 taught me a lot about how I was previously tested by patterns but was never grounded enough to fully shift. It was such an uncomfortable year emotionally and physically. I started by getting married which was the catalyst for a lot of true change. My husband never let me believe that I wasn’t worth feeling beautiful regardless of the physical changes my body experienced. I spent a year and a half with uncomfortable changes in my digestion, hormones, mental health etc. and I had to face what my body was telling me which was slow down! It then dawned on me that stress was a huge factor of the whole thing and regardless of the people in my life that continuously said “You just have to de-stress”, it isn’t that easy. It’s simply not and the reason I know that is because I see it in a lot of you too. Stress is a daily battle for many of us and the assumption that you can just drop it with a resolution at the start of every January can only add to it. So this year, I’m doing it differently. I’m going to allow myself to take it one day at a time because each year I’ve succeeded and each year I've accomplished all my goals, but each year, I’ve felt shamed and stressed doing it all. I’m grateful that I know how because my love of treating my skin so I’m going to shift to that mindset as often as I need to until it becomes a habit of pure self-love. I look forward to sharing how it all pans out along the way.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you are able to continuously discover your best skin, your best self in 2018!

Find more ways to discover Your Best Skin, Your Best Self with Therapeutic Skin Coach