2023 Q1 Reflections
Q1 of 2023 sort of flew by, but also felt long in some ways. January started out after a relaxed vacation but a stressful Q4. Lots of stress on the business side. Personal nutrition and workout goals kept me busy, active, and perhaps too concerned with how to manage all the changes. I was able to cope, but underneath my body was feeling the stress. After a tough ladder program, I had to rest my legs and prepare for an upcoming kite trip to my favorite spot in Mexico.
February was mostly travel, and I was able to detach, really go at it on the water, and learn to foil - a different type of board that what I'm used to kiting with. It was tough and I ended up with bruised and blue thighs, but I was able to learn to go upwind and stay up on the board. I got 15-16 days on the water, a lot of sunshine, daily beach meditation, walking, and am really proud of my body for handling it with such strength. At work there was a renewed focus on sales and business development, with long-tail results to come later on.
I was a bit sad to come back home, though excited to rest and spend time with family (birthdays!) and kittens. My legs actually felt worse and are still recovering into April. I've taken a step back from working them hard, and the timing is good with winter turning into spring, and an overall renewal. I made progress towards my goal of finding a counselor/therapist to help support me along the way this year and into the future.
Meditation is still a strong habit. Yoga not as much. And metabolic health is on its way - seeing some improvements, like much more balanced blood sugar, but still overall room to improve and bring into balance (higher than I'd like to).
Revisit resolutions
Here were my topics for the year:
- Physical: Bolster and Balance
- Emotional: Kindness and Support
- Mental: Guide and Surrender
- Spiritual: Float and Observe
Physical: Bolster and Balance
I really wanted to continue feeling strong and balanced in posture and digestion.
I've continued to consistently strengthen and February culminated with some tough kite learning which I'm really proud of doing successfully without injury. I did, however, push my legs too hard in January, and that has lead to a long tail recovery.
I definitely feel stronger, and my body/fitness/weight and overall strength have maintained quite well after February.
On the digestion side, I've had some improvements and experiments that succeeded, but no long-term steady balance yet. I had more bread again and that didn't go as well as I hoped, so Q2 I'll be giving it up again.
Celebrations:
- Consistent body weight and strength
- Consistent adrenal support, sunlight
- Inversion table, neck pillow and daily habits are going well
- Trampolining
- better/successful experiments with bloat and gas (even with starches!)
- Walking fairly consistently
Improvement:
- still no kettlebell
- still no punching bag
- IR/NIR but not consistently
- getting more headaches (still not taking breaks or resting my eyes consistently during the workday)
- get back into swimming
Emotional: Kindness and Support
Emotionally I feel more stress than I expected. It's a bit better than 2022 Q4, but not drastic. I get frustrated, stressed, tense and I get headaches. I manage these well in temperament, or at least better than I used to.
Celebrations:
- Found a counselor/therapist for support, and already had a session, yay!
- Spending QT with kitties - laughs, play, lots of petting
- Supportive relationship with my partner, I think we're doing quite well!
Room for improvement:
- Find friends, meetup/group, though I did get to spend time with a past coworker and we're staying in touch!
- Talking to current friends more
- I get annoyed/frustrated quite often and it shows with myself mostly, but also others some days
- Being kinder, especially to myself. I still tend to jump to conclusions and tense up, self blame, feel like I'm running behind.
- Use punching bag!
- Love others first each day. Give first.
Mental: Guide and Surrender
Mentally I'm doing fairly well other than the stress. I am very aware and do take breaks, deep breaths, and overall am more patient and less explosive/rushed/intense.
Celebrations:
- Awareness of stress and frustration
- Managing to take breaks in stressful times
- Debate a bit less about the things that can just be decided more easily (like upgrading kittens litter boxes)
- Using the Delegate Doc/must-do tasks on busy times.
- Able to focus on bizdev and the tasks that need done at work, even when it's not my goto
Room for improvement:
- Step away, it's okay.
- Let go of fight-or-flight and take some space. I'm getting support for this in counseling and hope to have some changes for Q2.
I would really like for my mind to be calmer and more patient, it's been tough lately and I'm feeling tense and agitated more often than I thought I would...
Spiritual: Float and Observe
I've had some great present moments, especially in February with my travels, being on the beach, working fewer hours and leaving more time unplanned. I've taken a break from substances for all of January and am now in a much more spaced out cadence for leaning on anything material - but I do have a pull to check my phone and read through messages (my new phone's in repair and I'm preparing for it)
Celebrations:
- Enjoyed kiting
- Baths, leaning into my body, pacing myself with workouts
- Continued meditation
- Second daily meditation weekdays
- Supporting our team and making it through Q1 - we made it!
Room for improvement
- Create more time and space for things to arise
- Diversity focus
Present and future
This year I didn't feel as inspired and even now I'm not feeling as hugely inspired by my goals as in years past. I am however, really excited that I learned the basics of kitefoiling and look forward to kite more in Q2 near home.
One thing I do feel inspired by is for my body and digestion to improve and arrive at a balanced, healthier state, even though it feels like two steps forward one step back so often.
I'm also proud of my priority shift to support the business, and for stepping away and allowing my legs to heal after a strong workout.
Looking ahead, I'm excited for things to pick up at work for our team, and to be able to step away and focus on some fun projects. I'm still excited to tinker with my new phone and hope it'll finally be repaired in April.
I'm excited to tend to the seedlings and plant them in the garden by the end of the quarter!
Here's to finding a more relaxed "default state" and living with increased (self-)kindness.