General, Healthy Habits

2023 Habit Challenge: Choose 12 habits to work on in 2023 (1 for each month)

Before we get into it, a lil note…

Thank you for being here. I know not everyday is an easy one and I want you to know that I’m happy you’re here. I see you putting in the hard work. I see you asking the tough questions, setting boundaries, wanting better for yourself. I see you doing what you need to day in and day out. It all is moving in your favor. Bit by bit you’re getting better, healthier, stronger. Keep going. Brighter days are coming. The best is yet to come.

Hi friends! Happy new year 🙂

In the spirit of planning for 2023 and setting up the year for success, here’s a fun 2023 challenge to help us build healthier, stronger habits for ourselves.

This past year (2022), we talked about how what you eat adds up and the power of daily routines.

It’s one thing to know what to do

It’s another thing to actually do.

In other words, knowledge is only power when we apply it.

We can bridge the gap between knowing and doing through this Happiness-Project-Inspired habit challenge:

Choose 12 habits to work on in 2023 (1 for each month)

Write out 12 habits you’d like to work on this year. Think about where you’re at in life right now and what you could use more of. Then match the habits with the months. Below is mine for some inspiration 🙂

  • January: eat more plants
  • February: do the little things without bringing attention to them
  • March: get organized
  • April: don’t take things personally
  • June: eat more fruit
  • July: wear more sunscreen
  • August: spend time with friends
  • September: mobility during morning and night routines
  • October: get really uncomfortable once a day
  • November: plan for next year
  • December: ask tough questions

Being healthy and fit comes down to your habits: what you’re doing and consuming on a daily basis.

Focusing on one habit at a time gives us the space to explore said habit and adjust it to fit into our lives.

Explore

For the first two weeks of the month, we take the space to explore a new habit by asking questions like…

How will my life change for the better if I build this new habit?
pros, cons, how will this habit impact me in the long-run? how will this habit affect those around me?

Is this a realistic habit for my life’s situation?
some examples of unrealistic habits based on life situations:

  • get to the gym everyday vs get a 30 min workout in everyday
    what if the gym is closed or the weather’s bad? do you miss a day because of something you can’t control?
  • read 10 pages vs read for 30 mins
    10 pages may take you longer or less than 30 mins to read depending on the book or your reading level

What does it look like to have this habit going in the day to day?
visualize and really feel yourself doing these things

What do I need to do on an on-going basis to help build this habit?
same thing here, visualize the process and feel all the feels

Adjust

For the last two weeks of the month, we adjust a new habit to fit into our lives.

We start the work to incorporate this new habit in our day to day and work to keep the habit going.

This is where our explore research and findings come in handy. You already know what you have to do. Keep track of your progress in a Google sheet or doc for easy reflection and adjustment.

Wrapping Up

If we are trying to build multiple healthy habits at once, none of them get the proper time and attention. Lots of wants and wishes get swept under the rug for lack of time, energy, and attention.

Focusing in on one habit at a time allows us to create a solid foundation to build on.

Challenge yourself: Choose 12 habits to work on in 2023 (1 for each month).

We’ve all heard the saying: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Brick by brick bitches 🙂 love y’all

Healthy Habits

Siesta: mid-day downtime

A few hours of down time after a big lunch to reset and reenergize? Sign me up!

I’ve been enjoying a siesta a few times a week now and am loving it.

7:30am – MORNING ROUTINE

Wake up and do my morning routine.

9am – WORKOUT

Get to the gym and put in that work.

11am – BIG LUNCH

Make a big 3-course plant-based lunch.

12:30pm – SIESTA (reset time)

Rest up with my legs on the wall, read some pages, do yoga, drink tea, think, journal, get some education in, and take a lil nappy.

3pm – ACTIVE INCOME

Money making time (2nd shift vibes).

10pm – NIGHT ROUTINE

Wash up and do my night routine.

Wrapping Up

A siesta is a chunk of time (typically in the afternoon hours after a big lunch) dedicated to resetting our energy levels, allowing us to be more productive in a shorter amount of time.

If you are feeling tired mid-day, take a siesta to get reenergized and end your day on a high note 🙂

Healthy Habits

It’s easy to be hard & hard to be easy

Easy choices make life hard and hard choices make life easy.

Choosing the easy

We can absolutely choose to lay in bed all day.

We can choose to do the bare minimum and just get by.

We can chose to do the easy stuff.

These are all legit choices and they are made everyday by people just like you and I.

Ever meet someone who refuses to eat healthy? No matter what, they always go for the junk food. “But junk food is EASY. I can just grab and go and get filled up from it.”

The downside to this easy choice are the side effects to eating junk food everyday for a long period of time. And these side effects make life hard.

This easy choice could and most likely will affect your health, self-confidence, relationships, communication, and even commitment negatively.

By choosing the easy day after day: eating unhealthy junk food, life becomes harder in every aspect.

Choosing the hard

We can also choose to get out of bed when the alarm goes off.

We can choose to do our best and make our dreams a reality.

We can choose to do the hard stuff.

These are also legit choices and they are made everyday by people like you and I.

Ever see a real happy person, like they’re happy all the time? And maybe ya think: “Man it must be so nice to be that happy. They don’t even have to try, they’re always just THAT happy.”

Effortless happiness is a myth. It takes HARD work to be happy. It takes constant awareness: reframing negative thoughts, finding gratitude, replenishing energy, sharing good vibes with others.

The upside to this hard choice are the side effects to being happy everyday for a long period of time. And these side effects make life easy.

This hard choice could and most likely will affect your health, self-confidence, relationships, communication, and even commitment positively.

By choosing the hard day after day: to really work on being happy, life becomes easier in every aspect.

Wrapping Up

There’s an easy choice and a hard choice for every situation.

The easy choice now leads to a harder tomorrow.

The hard choice now leads to an easier tomorrow.

Let’s start to ask ourselves in as many moments as we can remember: “What’s the hard choice here that will get me to my goals? Make me happier, healthier, more fulfilled?”

It’s easy to be heavy and hard to be light.

G.K. Chesterton
Healthy Habits

Use couch time productively

I love feeling relaxed and comfortable while I’m creating or studying, so you’ll likely find me set up somewhere with blankets, pillows, some candle light, a hot beverage, and soft music.

me writing this blog lol

For those of us who love the couch (sitting and laying comfortably)…

How can we use our couch time in a healthy, more productive way?

Can it be done? I think so!

Instead of just watching tv, scrolling social, eating, sleeping…

Here are some other ideas to add in to your couch time:

  • Get your legs on the wall (super easy to do and great for our health)
  • Fill out daily reflection prompts
  • Create a plan / review a plan
  • Write a blog 🙂
  • Edit pictures
  • Make a video
  • Research and learn something new
  • Read a good book / study
  • Send love to friends and family
  • Schedule out content
  • Plan a trip

Let me know what ya think – comment below!

Is it possible to be productive on the couch?!

Healthy Habits

How do we take blame?

Taking blame is setting a standard for communicating our thoughts and feelings, working to live up to it, and adjusting along the way as needed.

For example…

Someone says something that doesn’t sit well with us for whatever reason.

We may be taking it personally.

Taking blame in this situation would be asking more questions before responding right away.

So instead of clapping right back, let’s take a breath and ask ourselves…

How can we respond with love in this moment?

Responding with love is holding ourselves and our actions accountable.

And we can start by trying to understand the other person’s intentions.

What are they really trying to communicate?

What are they looking to get out of saying it?

Focusing on the why they said it vs what they said.

Communicating thoughts and feelings is tough on EVERYONE. Most people don’t even realize that’s a thing.

Taking blame is realizing that we all play a role, what could we do differently next time?

We’re responsible for all of our actions or lack there of. So why focus on anything else?

Healthy Habits

Take the blame, point the credit

Old way of thinking: take the credit, point the blame. This is how most people operate.

New way of thinking: take the blame, point the credit. This is how the greats operate.


Take the blame

We’re responsible for our actions or lack there of.

What could have we done differently?

No pointing fingers at others.

What did we do wrong?

We don’t have to respond with blame on others, we choose to.


Point the credit

We’re responsible for creating incredible things.

You play a role. So do others.

Point the credit to others as often as you can.

For example, my blog post goes viral – I can only thank the tools I have in front of me, the people who made and manage them, and the inspiration around me because without them all a viral blog post would not even be a thing.

We see you putting in the work, however there are no gold stars in life. What we get are feelings.

We feel happy and accomplished for example even if it’s just for the time being.

And when we point credit, we give these gifts of happiness to others.

We feel happy and now so do they 🙂


Wrapping up

Give credit instead of taking credit. When you point credit to others, you are giving them a gift of happiness and a fine reputation to hold up.

Self reflect instead of pointing fingers. When you take blame and reflect on your actions, you grow as an individual and show up in the world a better person.

Healthy Habits

It’s not what we do, it’s how we do it

Let’s say for example two people both work at the same place.

One works with enthusiasm: always looking for ways to improve their skills, grow the company, and connect with coworkers.

The other works with misery: always pointing things out in a negative way, gossiping, complaining, and criticizing others.

Both of these people work at the same exact place. Yet both have a completely different experience.

One loves work.

One hates work.

The difference between the two? Their ways of thinking.

One wants to be the best they can be.

One wants to be miserable (whether they want to admit it or not).

The beauty of this realization is that WE (yes you and me and every other human) get to choose our own ways of thinking.

Do we focus on the love or the hate?

More deeper…

Are we consciously looking for the positive, reframing the negatives, and trying our best in each passing moment?

Or are we unconsciously looking for the negative, denying any positives, and ignoring the little moments in front of us?

Healthy Habits

Practice patience

By practicing patience, we allow our nerves to relax, our minds to clear, and our lives unfold in a much calmer and natural way.


How can we practice patience?

We can practice patience by taking 5 deep belly breaths.


When can we practice patience?

  • If realize you are rushing around
  • If you catch yourself wanting to speed up a life situation or just life in general
  • If you find yourself wishing you were somewhere different
  • If you notice that you’re longing for different things / a different life


Taking a breather and slowing it down when our minds want to go go go.

Another easy to do, easy not to do thing.

Stay patient my friends and stay blessed💚

Healthy Habits

Attract positive energy in 60 seconds

You can attract positive energy anywhere at any time.

Find a quiet corner to sit comfortably…

Or don’t (because again, you can do this anywhere !!! like in a busy store or restaurant, during work, at home, in church, at the gym, on the toilet).

We could all use a little more positive energy throughout our busy days…

Especially when we start experiencing negative thoughts and feelings.

So here’s my quick checklist on how to attract positive energy in 60 seconds:

Play some music if you can / desire to.

And when you are ready, begin…

  1. Deep belly breaths
  2. Give thanks
  3. Draw positive energy in
  4. Get loose and stretch
  5. Dance / bust a move

See a visual > here < on my Pinterest.

May positive energy be with you always.

Healthy Habits

Higher Form of Reasoning

Something bad ever happen and it turned out to be for your own good in the end?

Maybe you learned a valuable lesson, or an opportunity came and you were at the right place at the right time.

Higher Form of Reasoning is a way of thinking, a belief, that everything that happens is for our greater good.

The good, the bad, all of it.

This way of thinking invites more love, joy, happiness, and hopefulness in our lives.

When we dwell on the bad, victimizing ourselves “poor us” – we invite more grief, sadness, anger, and jealously in our lives.

Higher Form of Reasoning tells us that it’s all working in our favor 🙂