Hey, everyone! My June reflection is here!
How was your June? Did you accomplish or make progress with any of your monthly goals? Are you happy with your routines and habits? I’d love to hear everything about your June! Feel free to drop a comment below if you’re up for it!
I feel like June was a significant month. I mean, it’s the beginning of the summer and brings us closer to the middle of the year. That’s the perfect time for some reflection, self-evaluation, and planning. But we’ll dive deeper into that in my next post.
For now, check this one out: (journaling prompts) if you haven’t already!
My June Life Update
June was eventful, at least, and it felt like it lasted a whole century. I can’t say it was a bad month, but definitely was a challenging one.
First, my mother passed out from low blood pressure, so I stepped in to care for her and the house for a while. Then, my WiFi router gave up on me (currently, hotspotting my laptop from my phone). Less significant things that happened: I had to gather paperwork for some banking stuff, and I dealt with a wave of anxiety and some eye strain that is now solved – apparently it was caused by using dark mode on all devices. All that happened while I was supposed to prepare for my first trip to Sweden to visit my SO. I’m flying out in less than a week!
So, a series of unfortunate events happened that stressed me out and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Still, June was far from a bad month.
My Writing Shenanigans
For starters, I finally started working again on my novel. That’s a biggie for me and something I’d wanted to do for months. Still, I don’t want to say more about it right now, because I’ve only started working on it recently. I’m still getting comfortable with the process of working on a long-term project like writing a book. It still feels good to be back in that creative space.
I worked on a lot of writing projects this month, and I managed to write just over 11k words. I hadn’t written that much in a while!
Then, this is not writing related, but later in the month I started taking better care of my appearance and health. Following a healthier lifestyle is one of the main goals for this year. Unfortunately, I’ve been quite on and off with it.
Time to talk about my habits!
I made a post at the start of the month about the five habits I was tracking in June. So, let’s see how things unfolded.
📚 Reading
I didn’t finish two books as planned, but I made significant progress with both. I’m close to finishing the Strawberry Patch Pancake by Laurie Gilmore. I was reading almost daily until mid-month, but then that habit got off track during the chaos.
I’m hoping that I’ll get back to reading more consistently now that things are calmer, and I’ll try to finish at least one book in July.
🙏 Gratitude
Even practicing gratitude (my favorite habit!) was challenging in June. I’m happy with how I did with it, though. I practiced it semi-consistently even though I was extremely lazy with it at times.
There were instances I wouldn’t even write down what I’m grateful for, and I’d just express gratitude hastily in my mind before going to bed.
Here’s the thing: the most important part is to show up, not doing it perfectly or in an “aesthetic” way every time.
There are times that gratitude felt like the light that led me through a dark route.
Finding reasons, things, and people to be grateful for when I’m stressed or overwhelmed is very important to me because it keeps me in the present moment and helps me focusing on what works and not just on the negative parts of my life.
💧 Hydration
Finally, a win!
That was one the habit I nailed in June.
I discovered that your girlie loves cold water, so that was the trick that made all the difference. I drank 1.5 liters almost daily, and I hope I can keep up with this habit this month as well – which will be tricky because I always neglect drinking water when I’m traveling.
The most important difference I noticed was that hydration boosted my energy levels as the afternoon crashes stopped. There really wasn’t any significant difference with my skin, and I did have a few breakouts that I think were because of stress.
I’m curious to see if I’ll notice any more benefits if I keep this habit up.
🧘♀️ Meditation
On the other hand, that’s the one habit I failed miserably in June.
I barely meditated, even though I was in a good track with it in May. Especially, after my mother’s injury, I couldn’t bring myself to actually relax and ground myself even for five minutes.
For a week or two, my mind raced way too fast.
It’s probably a habit that I won’t prioritize in July since I’ll be out and about, but I hope to revisit it in August when things slow down.
📓 Journaling
That’s the last habit I wanted to practice more in June, and well, I did, but not as much as I would have liked.
It’s worth mentioning that journaling helped me navigate hard moments this month because, through this, I found a way to vent, put my thoughts in an order, and hesitantly plan the next steps of my life plan.
I’d like to keep practicing it more in July – preferably 2-3 times per week.
One more important thing that happened in June
The approach of the mid-year and a minor existential crisis I went through made me start some kind of glow-up journey, and I’m intending to keep up with it until I feel happy with myself and the way my life is – basically, until I get out of that “Everything is a hot mess” mentality.
It’s a work in progress, but the small changes boost my confidence and help me feel in more control of my goals, and both these things are very important to me.
I’ll definitely talk more about this in an upcoming post.
Finally
June may have been messy and unpredictable, but I pushed through and I even had a few wins and improvements.
I’d love to hear how your June went. What were your wins? What threw you off track? Are you planning any lifestyle changes for July?
Thank you for reading!
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See you in the next one!