I can’t decide whether or not I want to do a mental wellness chat or a stress relief book reading blog. For now, I’m just going to switch back and forth until I choose or maybe I’ll just keep switching back and forth. We shall see! Either way, I’ll definitely be talking about the books I read.
So let’s get into what’s going on in January. I hope your January was excellent! I rather enjoyed mine and I’m looking forward to what the rest of this year brings. So let’s grab ourselves a cozy drink and start chatting!
Quiet and Calm
For the first time in what feels like months, my life has been relatively quiet and calm. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you know I have been dreaming of this moment and it is finally here. I feel as if I can get my mental well-being back on track and I can feel more balanced and grounded. Now it’s time to work on it! Have you settled from the holiday craziness yet?
Challenges
The challenges that I faced for this month are almost all mental. I continue to absorb and hold onto other people’s negativity and issues easily. It feels as if I absorb their negativity like a sponge and it’s no fun. I’m also struggling with focus and feel my brain is still stuck in the holiday crazy mode more or less. So I jump from task to task without actually feeling like I finish anything.
Finally, the worst thing about being an adult, in my opinion, are the phone calls. I have had to call so many people from people who work on the house to doctors. I am so tired of phone calls that simply lead to more phone calls. I’m happy to say that this is probably my biggest complaint in January. Other than that, January’s been pretty great!
Manifesting
So now that I know what I want to focus on: the negative attitude, absorbing others’ feelings, and focus. Now, I have an idea for what I want my February mantra to be. However, I’m not going to wait until February to start balancing my thoughts and focusing on a positive mindset. I tried gratitude and tried to shift my negative thoughts to positive ones which absolutely helped. However, it didn’t seem to fully help when it came to absorbing others’ negative emotions.
For this, I’m working toward detaching my emotional well-being from others’. I remind myself that these are their thoughts and emotions and not my own. I have also been writing down manifestations which help quite a bit. So I write down “I bring patience into my life” or I bring the ability to focus into my life”. Writing is such a powerful tool and I’ve noticed instant results when I write these things down.
Books I Read for Stress Relief
Hooray for books! If you guys read any good books lately, please let me know. I’m constantly looking for recommendations and I love hearing and talking about books. So here are a couple of books I read in January that I really enjoyed.
The Queen of Water by Laura Resau
The Queen of Water is based on the true story of a girl who lives in a village in Ecuador and is trying to find her place in the world. The reason I love this book so much was because the main character was so real and fleshed out. Of course, I would expect no less since the main character, Virginia, is based on an actual woman. However, I was immediately caught up in her thoughts and ideas.
What I found so incredible about this book is that it spoke to the dreamer and the ambitious part of myself. This girl lives in a world that’s telling her constantly what her place is. Instead of accepting this, Virginia questions and fights it in small and large ways. If you want to read an uplifting book, this is it! Virginia faces challenges that I can’t imagine facing as a child today. However, the woman she becomes by the end of the book is truly incredible and a wonderful heroine.
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Oh man did I left this book! High school student Emoni, the main character, has such a passion and gift for cooking. Living with her Abuela and her two-year-old daughter, Emoni barely has time between going to school, taking care of her daughter, and working. Her school offers a new culinary class which she jumps at. In this book, we see a powerful young woman learning to navigate her world between child and mother. With her responsible but feisty attitude, Emoni is so easy to fall in love with and so much fun to watch on her journey. You root for her the entire time, wanting only the best for her and her little girl. The writing, the storytelling, the character development, all perfect. I highly recommend With the Fire on High.
So tell me what’s been going on in your January! Are there any challenges you’re facing that you’d like to overcome? Do you have anything to celebrate? What books have you been reading? I want to hear all about it!