Finding 52…

As I round out my birthday week, which I affectionately call “AmyPalooza” I find myself wanting to do another birthday to birthday challenge for myself.  For those of you who followed me back then, when I turned 50, I did “50 Firsts before my 51st” and I did 50 things I had never done before. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time finishing that list.  So as I drove home from my quick trip to Boise to celebrate with my best friend & family, I decided I needed to come up with another challenge.  Then it hit me, I am now 52, and there’s 52 weeks in a year, so why not do something weekly!

I am a HUGE proponent for self-care as most of you know. I dedicate an entire Hobonichi Weeks Mega (see featured photo) to track my self-care daily.  But lately, my self-care has kind of de-evolved into buying things for myself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love spending money on myself, but I really don’t consider that self-care. I wanted to change things up and find TIME for myself more than anything else.

So…

the idea of #finding52 was born as I drove the long 4.5 hours from Boise to Salt Lake City.  My plan is to carve out 52 hours all for myself, 1 hour per week at the very least.  I want it to be something that is not normally part of my weekly “TO DO’s” or something I already do for self-care. I want it to be an hour that I GIVE MYSELF every week, just for me.

No work, no training, no planner updates, etc. It’s purely relaxing, reenergizing and most importantly MINE. Whether I decide to go get an hour massage all by myself outside the couples massages we have or going to a new coffee shop and just reading a book for an hour, I want it to be ME TIME.  Something outside my norm.

Research is showing that as we get older, meditation, movement, and rejuvenation is extremely important in our overall wellbeing yet most of us take very little time for ourselves. Mostly, because we feel guilty, because we aren’t working, we aren’t helping our kids, or our spouses, etc.

TAKE THE TIME!!!

I have harped on this time and time again, if you don’t take care of yourself, you can not take care of others. It’s THAT simple. Yet so many of us ignore it, and it’s killing us slowly. One hour a week can sound like a lot and not enough at the very same time, but as I started thinking about what I wanted to do this week, my immediate thought was “wow, where am I going to fit this in” because my one big rule is to NOT break that hour up into smaller pieces.

Seriously. Don’t Do It!  If you can’t carve an hour out of your schedule without depriving yourself of sleep, you are too busy and should probably relook at your schedule. As most of you that follow me are planner folks, you know, if it doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done.  So SCHEDULE IT!!!

In the 365 days of the coming year, you will have 8760 hours. That’s non-negotiable and indisputable. We ALL have the same amount of time in a day, 24 hours. Now, how you split that up varies from person to person but we ALL get the same amount of time every day. I think we can all find 52 hours out of those 8760 to do something for ourselves.

And You Should!

In the grand scheme of life, it’s a drop in the bucket, yet it will give you so many benefits for the longevity of your life. Need ideas?  These are just a few on my list…

1. Learn a new language
2. Read a book series
3. Learn to meditate
4. Try Qi Gong
5. Try Tai Chi
6. Try a new recipe in your Instant Pot that you have left in the box for 3 months
7. Start a book club
8. Get a weekly spa treatment
9. Go walking in a new park every week
10. Visit a museum

So there are 10 ideas right off the bat, other than the spa treatment they are all free!  You can follow videos on YouTube to get started with almost all of them. You can even do your own spa treatments by learning how to use essential oils & herbs.

If you really put your mind to it, you can come up with 52 different ideas, a different one every week.  Or if you want to do the same thing every week great!  Whatever gets you to focus on yourself for a FULL hour every week is perfect.

I plan on tracking every week in my Hobonichi Weeks Mega and I will also have a Quick Reference List written out as well just in case I need inspiration for something to do. I am also going to talk about it on my YouTube channel as well every week. I will let you know what I am doing that week, and hopefully, that keeps it in the forefront of your mind and you can always let me know what you are doing as well.

I will be using #findingfiftytwo on Instagram and Twitter so you can follow that hashtag and see what everyone is doing for the challenge if people decide to do this with me lol. If not you’ll at least be able to see what I am doing each week!

So there you have it!  My birthday (12/13/2018) to birthday (12/13/2019) challenge this year. I also talked about it in my Dec 17 Vlogmas as well if you want to check that out.

I am truly blessed in my life and I love where I am in this world and I hope more of you can find your own magic in life! Give it a try…you might be surprised!

Amy