I'm Feeling (20)22!
2021 was simultaneously one of the most challenging and one of the best years yet. While I was first taking the time to reflect on the year, my mind automatically went to the tough moments and endings of certain chapters in my life. However, I also experienced several notable milestones, such as starting my first year of medical school, getting our family’s mini goldendoodle Oatly (the cutest!!), and traveling to five states + national parks. I feel like it’s natural for us to focus on the one or two things that didn’t go as we may have hoped, but there’s often so many good things that have happened for us too. When I’m going through a challenging time, I find it helpful to reflect on where I was a year ago from now. For example, when the rigor of medical school feels extra tough, I think back to how a year ago, I didn’t even know that I would be accepted into Western. This small reflection always puts everything into perspective and reminds me that it’s such a gift to be on this path towards my dream career. When we focus on the good, the good gets better. Through these ups and downs in this year of personal transition, I’ve learned that endings always mark new beginnings. I’m already starting to feel certain beginnings form and although I can’t predict what will happen in this upcoming year, I have a feeling that there will be all sorts of good growth in store for me and you. Perhaps 2022 will turn out even better than we ever could have imagined.
One intention that I found myself returning to during various times of transition of this year was the idea of coming home to myself. There’s strength and power that comes with healing our hearts, picking up the pieces, and choosing to move through various challenges. The relationship that we have with ourselves is our most important one and this year reminded me that growing intimate roots between our mind, body, and soul allows us to move towards a state of peace and acceptance. This intention sparks a balance between investing in our social support network (which is SO important to our health) while also not feeling a need to seek home within others, because we can build that beautiful foundation within ourselves. It’s a feeling of living our best, authentic lives and coming back to our core values. In my personal life, coming home to myself entails writing in a daily gratitude journal, buying myself fresh flowers every week, and finding mindful movement on a daily basis. Being in my early 20s can feel like a quarter life crisis all the time (being a Scorpio is also basically a birthright to be a little dramatic so for the most part, all is well haha). In the spirit of flowing through this ever-changing time of my life, I’ll be exploring this idea of coming home to myself in 2022.
To embrace the magic of this new year and beginning, I decided to create a vision board filled with what I’m hoping to manifest more of in 2022! It was my first time making one and I loved the whole process—I’m so excited to share more about it with you. I started by first reading through the monthly reflections and weekly intentions that I’ve written in my Passion Planner (get 10% off my all-time favorite planner of over five years now, with my code ANJALI10). With these key takeaways and learning opportunities in mind, I then put on some lo-fi beats and journaled what I wanted to manifest more of in this upcoming year. I encourage you to just write down whatever comes to mind without judgment or perfection. Just let your thoughts flow naturally! I found that by writing freely, I had so many more ideas than I had when I first sat down with my planner. My 2022 manifestations so far include the intentions of coming home to myself, going with the flow, romanticizing the little things, investing in my social support network, and finding balance in medical school. With this inspiration in mind, I then set forth to Pinterest (as one naturally does) to search for images that fit the 2022 vibe that I’m hoping to cultivate. After getting carried away and pinning about 100 images to my board, I then hopped onto Canva. I searched for “desktop wallpaper” and selected “create a blank desktop wallpaper.” I then uploaded my favorite images from the Pinterest board I had just created, and added them to the template. I don’t have any design experience and I promise that you don’t have to have any to make a board! A lot of it is just going with the flow, playing your favorite songs in the background, and resizing some images until they all fit together. After I finished making my vision board, I set it as my desktop wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper. It’s already bringing me so much joy to look at, and I think it will be a lovely source of inspiration to look at daily during 2022.
Feel free to share what you’ll be working on in the new year, in any shape or form, vision board or not! I love getting more ideas and hearing from you. Cheers to feeling ‘22 (Taylor’s Version, of course)!
