2015 Manifesto

This year will be a year of self-care and self love. Self-care in the sense of dressing up myself, caring for my hair and skin, choosing the right shoes and clothes for my body, watching over my diet and so on. With that, self care is more about the physical aspect of me, and Self-love is, well, the deeper and more substantial part of me - my passion, interests, mental and emotional wellness - the harder one to affirm, the hardest to achieve. Yet, even if the latter seems far more important, it couldn't simply exist without self-care and so I take on this aim of completely loving and caring for myself this year.

I believe that loving oneself is the most important personal achievement a person can achieve. If a person loves oneself, she can work on more important things than herself such as relationships and career, but it is always, always the first step, the foundation. I have seen and read countless reasons why loving oneself is the path to happiness and peace. I want to work on that. I want to love myself before I could completely love another.

Habits to form

The things I do everyday may seem to make a little difference but without me knowing it, those little differences add up and all at once it is one huge improvement.

Mindfulness - being conscious about my posture, choosing fruits and vegetables over unhealthy choices, drinking plenty of water and tea, moderating coffee, sticking to my bedtime routine - the list goes on. Mindfulness is a big word and it can be applied to anything and literally everything I do in my life. It's being aware, being in the moment and choosing what is right over what you want.

Yoga and meditation - I have skimped on this last year. But I just know I need to get back. The rush I feel, the peace, the oneness in myself. Isn't that what I am all about? I will start slowly again. Fifteen minutes, then thirty, then an hour. I can't wait.

Budgeting - I seriously need to work on handling money. I am not in debt but I don't like the feeling of cramming whenever it's time to pay the rent or my bills and I don't like struggling days before payday. Those are sure signs that I need to budget no matter how little money I have. The key is to know where my money goes.

Journaling - What I write nowadays are lesson plans and letters - mainly for business but I don't write for myself. In order to get inspired, I had to write my thoughts and evaluate them. Looking back on my writings when I was younger, I realize that journaling helped me a great deal to be more gentle with myself.

A daily routine - Routines doesn't necessarily have to be iron-clad. Routines are guides. Routines keep you focused. So I will write down a daily routine and stick to it.


Goals

Make a mark in the workplace - Be a better teacher, write better, speak better, teach better. Have more interesting lessons. Make student recognize your work, be someone they will remember. Be nice to co-workers even if they don't affirm to your views. Just do your job, focus, nothing else matters. Be irreplaceable.

Learn basic Korean - No pressure, no need to enroll on a language class. At least learn how to read and write Hangul. Learn some basic phrases and sentences.

Lose 3 kilograms - I remember when I was 58 kg, then when I graduated from college I was 55kg now I am 50 kg and I wanna work on being  47 kg. I am happy with my weight now but if it doesn't hurt I wanna be leaner. I know yoga can help and eating the right things.

Get a Korean visa - Before my work contract ends in May, I have to get a visa. I plan to visit and meet my boyfriend's parents personally before this year ends. Also, we intend to live together, but this depends on the situation.

Visit my boyfriend at least once - When I get the visa, this will be easy. That's it.

I don't want to have really big goals because they can be very overwhelming. As what my boyfriend always say, step by step. Slowly, the  all at once. Everything is an S-curve.