The Annual State of the Blog Address

We can thank my friend Christen for coming up with today’s blog post title. I was sharing with her my intentions for this blog post in the middle of plates of Swedish food at IKEA and as I was trying to explain what I wanted it to be I said it’s kind of like a… State of the Union address! To which she responded, “A State of the Blog Address!” I like it. So we’re going with it.

I realized as I sat down to write this that I haven’t shared a blog post since the week before Christmas. I typically take time off around the Holidays, but my time extended quite a bit this year. I know a lot of you feel like I was probably a bit cryptic on Instagram, but I needed to completely remove myself from social media for a bit there and I wanted to at least give you a heads up.

But I digress.

I want today’s post to be a very informal catch up, a chat about where I see my blog going this year, and my word of the year so now that you know the plan, you can keep me accountable to the plan (just shout at the screen if I get distracted).

So to bring things down to a much more serious note, I wanted to start with a life update first because I think the rest of this post will make more sense in light of it.

A few days after Christmas we found out that a very close friend of ours had passed away suddenly. I’m not going to really say much more than that other than to say it’s been very difficult and I’ve needed to take a break from everything to wrap my head around it all.

You guys know these last few years have been really difficult for our family with the discovered ADHD and chronic illness, that on top of some very rough years before that. But we also had dealt with a personal blow back in November, and to now lose our friend…I have to be honest with you guys, there are many moments over the last couple of weeks where it’s all felt like too much.

BUT I’ve talked to my therapist, my parents, and close friends and while I may not understand it all, I am thankful to have a support system that is there for our family and I know we’ll be okay.

I have had some time to reflect though and one thing my therapist said to me that just keeps going through my head:

sometimes we just need to feel like we’re being wrapped in a warm blanket.

Oy I resonate with that. And I’ve realized that not only do I want to feel like that, but I want to feel like that for an extended amount of time.

Which means rest… which means less… which means intentionality because I don’t like to rest.

I’ve made a promise to myself that this year I will choose rest EVEN when it feels uncomfortable. EVEN when I could be doing something productive. EVEN if I currently have the energy level to do more. Because the big picture says I need to heal from chronic stress and that’s not going to happen if I’m only resting when I crash.

I hope to set up consistent boundaries in all aspects of my life that will ensure I have the time to take a nap, read a book, go on a walk, sit and listen to music, etc. each day.

Things like:

• Take melatonin so my overactive brain will allow me to fall asleep at an early enough hour to give myself time in the morning to be slow (this one is Dr. Approved)
• stick to a minimal hair and makeup routine Monday – Saturday EVEN if I feel like doing more to save myself the time.
• Stick to only one blog post a week here.
• Create more lifestyle content so physically I don’t have to be so “on” all the time
• Skip reels except occasionally.
• DEFINITELY skip TikTok.
• Putting our phones in a basket after a certain time at night (see the photo above)
• Use grocery delivery services and things like Thrive/Butcher Box and not feel guilty about it.

Etc, Etc. But I’m not doing all of these time savers just so I can zone out on my phone. One of my biggest goals this year is to spend as little time on social media as possible. The only thing I like about social media is connecting with you guys… everything else I can leave behind. So I won’t leave it completely, but when I’m there it’s to check in with you and then I’m back to other things.

So I bet you can guess what my word of the year is…

any guesses?

.

,

,

Rest. Plain and simple. I want to pursue rest over ambition, rest over productivity, and rest over achievement. Not that any of those things are bad things. I can’t stand when people say “if I can do it, so can you” because they’re ignoring the most important thing about humanity with that statement: we’re all preciously different and unique. While I desperately need rest this year, you may need ambition.

So I’ll close with that. I hope you all find peace this year in the pursuits that are unique to you,

Until next time,

Karin