New Year - Improved Me

By Indre Bagdonaite

With Christmas season here and New Year around the corner, it is important to remember that you matter the most. There is always so much pressure that we face on a daily and feel the need to change the world for the better, make crazy sacrifices, and keep pushing for more success.

But in the process, we forget ourselves and the importance of self-improvement and self-care. In 2020 I want you to begin to learn how to truly focus on yourself, your health and your inner peace. Do things that make YOU happy. You are the one who will live the life you build for yourself and you will only live it once. We CAN take a break from this busy world and just have some time for ourselves. No one has the right to tell you that you need to do more or that you aren’t doing enough.

Nowadays, social media plays a big part in these pressures we experience, forgetting that most people on social media, put on a façade and pretend to have this perfectly unquestionable life. But…reality is not the same. We all face struggles, we all have problems we wish we hadn’t, we sometimes wish we could restart our lives and start out fresh. How about instead of wishing we had a different life, we make use of our current and open a new chapter in which the main character works on self-improvement and growth. Self-improvement is so important, especially if you are still trying to find yourself and your purpose. Without constant learning and appreciation of the surroundings, all we will do is become stuck in the robotic system of production and consumerism.

Every year we see people make a New Year’s resolution of becoming a ‘New Me’. I’d recommend you make a New Year’s resolution of becoming an ‘Improved Me’. We should stop wanting to be a new person and start wanting to become an improved self. Be the real you, not a new someone. Self-care and growth are the key practices that will help you become an improved and a better version of yourself. Being stressed out is normal, but what we can’t do is let those short-time stresses impact us for a long-time period. Personally, I catch myself stressing out over things that don’t really matter in the long run. When I do catch myself in such moments, I try to analyse why it has triggered me more than it should of. Maybe there was an event or an experience from the past that I was reminded of in that instance? When we analyse our behaviour and attitude, it becomes easier to have a better reaction to everything we encounter whether it’s positive or negative. That is called growth. We cannot criticise our selves and think that what we feel or do hasn’t got a reason behind it or isn’t valid. We need to love ourselves enough to be able to reflect, analyse and improve; instead of choosing to hide, criticise and neglect.

Happy Holidays!