It’s been a bit quiet here on the blog lately. The beginning of the year is always pretty busy, if not with uni work, then with life things – visiting family, getting back into the research job I got for the summer, organising to go overseas at the end of the month, pondering the year to come. Being sick on new year’s eve.
So I know it’s a bit late, but I’d like to wish everyone reading this blog a happy new year. I hope that this year will bring you what you are looking for in it, and maybe even surprise you in a nice way. I wish you the strength to pursue your dreams, and cast aside the things that are holding you back. I hope that you’ll find happiness in your life – and it not, that you have someone to share your sadness and frustrations with. After all, happiness can be hard sometimes.
I haven’t made a new year’s resolution in many years, after I realised that constantly resolving to be better at school when I already was top of my year was a bit self-defeating. This year I thought I’d give it a go again. Obviously, there are always so many things I could decide to do: get perfect grades, be a better person, exercise more, blog more, be a better feminist, stop using the word ‘like’, stop wasting time on Facebook, break the procrastination habit… But I feel like I should limit myself to something – hey, maybe my resolution can be to stop thinking I have to do all those things. But I’ve thought about it, and here are the two things I’d like to work on this year.
First, I want to stop putting up with problems by body is having – specifically, in terms of my back pain and my foot pain. I’ve had undiagnosed foot pain ever since I walked across Spain three years ago, meaning that I can’t really walk or stand for more than half an hour without my feet getting really, really mad at me. It makes things like going into the city on the weekend with friends really hard. I’ve seen two podiatrists and both are stumped, so part of looking after this problem means doing research and actually asking my doctors for referrals so that I can find out what’s happening. Likewise, I’ve been getting all sorts of back pain while I’m sitting and lying down for a year and a half now, and every time I manage to deal with it a little, I lose focus and let it get really bad again. It’s making studying really frustrating, so I want to get on top of it. I want to actually go and talk to people who can help me, rather than just hoping that it will magically go away.
And secondly, I’d like to figure out what’s been making me get increasingly anxious and worried in the last half year or so, and deal with that. I’ve noticed that I’ve been worrying a lot more about things that didn’t used to worry me – like being a good person and living by a code of ethics, and getting anxious about things in the distant future that I really don’t need to worry about yet. I used to get panic attacks in high school when I didn’t know what I was doing in a situation, and I’ve noticed that I’m starting to get those feelings again – physical reactions as well as mental reactions. So I figure if my body’s telling me something’s wrong, I need to start doing something about that as well.
Of course, I’m not expecting to solve with any of those problems fully in the space of a year. But I want to make a start, and engage with them rather than push them aside and hope for the best.
Is there anything you have decided for this year, dear readers?
A life unexamined 
I’m trying to say “like” less too! It just won’t quit…
I really like your ideas; I like their focus on doing things for yourself rather than starting off from a place of thinking that you have to resolve to improve things that are supposedly deficient about yourself.
I’m coming from a similar place when I say that it’s my plan to take a calligraphy class this year with someone who is a nurturing and supportive figure in my life. Because I want to do something creative, and social, and to show myself that I can learn a new skill with my hands. And hopefully this will keep me from being trapped in the interior world of my thesis!!
Thanks Chally, that’s what I was trying to go for. It’s so much nicer to do something for yourself than focus on how crap you are and all the things you need to do better. I hope your calligraphy class turns out to be wonderful!
I myself have dealt with sporadic foot pain for as long as I can remember (it’s genetic – thanks dad). Fortunately, in the past couple years, it has become very rare, and it has been relatively mild when it has broken out (I suspect this is either because of a change in climate, or because I changed my exercise regime, or possibly both). I would like this state of affairs to continue.
Anyway, I hope you are successful in your endeavor to alleviate your foot and back pain.
Hi Jo,
I didn’t get to read this one earlier in the year – but checking my emails and catching up… my response is more about foot pain than resolutions. I’ve been having foot pain since post pregnancy (plantar fasciitis) and I have found that the only relief I can get is by wearing certain shoes, MBT’s, the rocker soled shoes. They are very comfortable and have quite a good range.
I am sure you would be able to find them in Brisbane somewhere – there is a shoe shop in Byron that stocks them otherwise.
I have also found that cranio sacral therapy, acupuncture and a good osteopath helps with back/body pain.
Best wishes in your trip to Italy.
Hey! I’ve tried all sorts of things for my feet from shoes to a bunch of different orthotics. What I get was originally thought to be plantar fasciitis too, but it’s something different to that. Might try them out though anyway, when I get back.
Various health professionals have suggested that the foot pain is caused by a weakness in my pelvic floor after birthing (seems strange and obviously this is not the cause of your pain) – so I’ve been going to Pilates for a few months to strengthen my body and I feel that it is making a difference to my foot pain to the point that I can go to the beach and walk around bare foot for an hour or so on the sand without feeling much pain afterwards. (No bare feet for me, ever).