Welcome to a fresh start. I love them, and for most of us – they do a mindset good. In tandem with my @jesshonig instagram platform – January rolls out the steps and tools to shift into what I’m coining as the “2024, Less Worry and More (fill in the blank)” and fill in that blank with blissful, joyful terms. Or, merely follow along via the monthly prompts of MORE good stuff inspired by the Mindful Book Club that I offer.
To begin our journey of 2024, LESS WORRY, MORE (fill in the blank)…I offer the prompt for MORE INTEGRITY. I’m reading Martha Beck’s personal growth masterpiece The Way of Integrity and while I’ll be sure to download what I learn, along the way, I wanted to start the year with a jolt of my own clinical suggestions of what integrity means to me and how it might help with anxiety relief.
INTEGRITY (noun): a state of being whole, honest
Oxford Dictionary Inspired
- MORE INTEGRITY (to self): when we are honest with ourselves, attuned to our human-mixed bag of strengths and struggles, we open ourselves to a lush safe haven of self-talk. Say to yourself, “I see you sister, and I hear you. And it’s totally okay to feel that way today.” What a radical contrast from the often chronic, negative self-talk that I recall from my younger years or still see in my worst days for self and client. Think, “You loser, get it together. Everyone else does.”
- MORE INTEGRITY (without comparisons): where #1 leaves off, we seamlessly segway into keeping our eyes on our own dang yoga mat. NEWS FLASH: we don’t sleep better because we are doing better than the Joneses. We sleep better with a quiet mind and contentment. The most efficient, lasting, and compassionate path toward this kind of contentment: be you. Permit yourself to be more, compare less. Permit yourself to be wherever you are at today. Less critiques. Permit yourself to be, and strive less. I am not saying you have to BE this way all of the time, however – I see clinically, most people walk into my office with so much FOMO, JONES COMPARISONS, and PRESSURES TO PERFORM…I rarely see a super anxious person walking in to complain: “Well, I am so okay just being with my senses that the rest of the world and its expectations drizzled away and that was so stressful,” said no person ever.
- MORE INTEGRITY (to REAL SELF CARE) – while, yes, I did just reference a book I love and audibled recently and then gifted to my mother-in-law for the holidays (yup, liking it that much (Real Self Care by Pooja Lakshmin, MD). But my point in #3 – and the point of Dr. Lakshmin’s poignent work – we get caught up in self-improvement, home improvement, spa treatment, crystal this and that self-care becomes another bloody to-do-list item. And we lose a grasp on most tangible, personal stress relief packages. What does that look like? Peace-of-freakin-mind, people! Integrity that is honest to ourselves, involves a moment of pause that breaks up energy from currents in one direction and parts the sea of momentum by asking this question duo: Who am I really? And how may I tend to that true self, more often? Getting to know what genuinely gives you purpose, fulfillment, and sense of belonging – that happens to be the healthiest daily cleanse you can do for anxiety. We begin to thrive when we show up, and show back up, incrementally, for what lights us up. Think tire tracks produced by a rugged, well built truck along muddy backroads. Eventually, those tire tracks efficiently take you to where you want and need to go, routinely, with fewer bumps. Yet, you have to start the engine.
Prompt for the week: create a two column list. Label one column title with – GROW. Label the second column title – JUNK DRAWER. Brainstorm the ways you wish to genuinely GROW in 2024, the MORE of XX. And the JUNK DRAWER will be your list of what to let go of: in thoughts, actions, and maybe even hurtful associations. Show up for column one on the regular via specific productive actions and positive thoughts. Voila.
ANXIETY ANSWERS 