Happy New Year! Last year was amazing for me although we were (and still are) in a pandemic. I got promoted at work, started my own online fashion jewelry business (Jeweltorious), bought a nice BMW X1, and saved a lot of money. However, one thing that I neglected last year was self care.

I worked (on my full-time job and business) for long hours at a time, which resulted in me getting easily frustrated, frazzled, and sad. This year, I am committed to being more kind to myself. Below are a few ways in which I will exercise self-care and self-love.

Limit Social Media Use

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. On one hand, it is a great tool for business and on the other, it really adversely affects your mental health (I even wrote an article about it for a college newspaper). Images from peers on social media can make you subconsciously believe that you are missing out or behind on life when really you are not. Therefore, I am committed to limiting my social media use this year.

Be Patient

What can I say? 🤷‍♀️ I’m an Aries ♈️, so I can be a little impatient. I tend to want to rush into starting new business ventures, but I need to understand that good things take time. So, I’m going to try to take everything one day at a time.

Stop Working So Much

Like I said before, last year, I would work long hours all at once on my business and full-time job. For my full-time job, I would clump most of my overtime hours on the weekends. Now, I’m committed to working no more than two hours of overtime each work day. If I choose to now want to do overtime for the day, then I will not force myself.

For my business, I would think so much on what I needed to change and do the next day that I would get a headache. Also, I would feel bad if I didn’t post on social media for the day. This year, I am not going to rush to post something on social media for my business just to post. F an algorithm! Likes and views do not equal sales. Also, I will start using my planner more to better structure when and what I will work on for the day.

Reading for Enjoyment

When I was younger, I used to love reading. I remember I would read a lot of books in the Clique series. I liked reading fiction novels. Now, I have a lot of self-help, fashion, and business books because I like to do a little bit of research. Although, I like these informative books, it only causes me to stress out about my current business and future endeavors. So, I am going to read more fiction novels this year to relax my mind and enjoy reading again.

How will you be kind to yourself this year? Feel free to leave some comments below :)