"Hindsight's always 20/20"

It's something I've heard myself say a lot. Especially more recently. Looking ahead into 2019 and what I want out of it has led to a lot of looking back. And really it's not just looking back, but knowing from the faults and improving upon them.

If we're being honest, I've looked back and come to the realizations about how I could've taken better care of myself and lived my life better. I know now that my self-care fell. It slowly declined over time and somehow I just failed to notice. I thought to make myself look better or keeping myself busy helped to keep my mind on track of the spinning world I could barely catch up with. I didn't pay enough attention to what self-care is and more of, I wasn't really keeping track of how to make sure I'm taking care of myself- physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Self-care is about seeing yourself as you are and improving upon who you already are.

But more than that- self-care is more than just looking after yourself. It's more than checking in once in a while to make sure you're still okay. Or that you're doing better than you were. It's more than looking good, it's dragging yourself out of bed and dragging yourself to the gym.

It's more than looking good, it's dragging yourself out of bed and dragging yourself to the gym.

Self-care isn't something that's particularly emphasized in schools and society, itself. But, that doesn't make it any less important. And with the change of the new year, people have created these ways to better themselves and make the new year better than the previous. We, as a society, use all of these goals and resolutions to help us, but more often than not, they don't stick. We tell ourselves that we'll get healthier, or lose weight, or eat healthier, or be happier.

But really, resolutions don't really have to do with our mental health. More often than not, they deal with how we can better ourselves physically, rather than mentally or emotionally. Emotional and mental health is overlooked many times and we as a society are still new to seeing mental health as something that's real and very valid. It takes an effort to check in on yourself and your mental health.

An effort that isn't always easy to read, but one which places you in a better state and is so so so so worth it. Trust me, I get it. I'm not the best at learning to read my own emotional and mental health and I'm convinced that I've let it slide or pretended that I'm doing better than I am, simply not recognizing where I was in my mental and emotional states.

I, like most other people, have my new year's resolutions. But I know that besides including my own physical goals, I want to include goals of bettering my own emotional and mental health. Despite that, it still is the beginning of the new year and I, much like, most people still have what feels like all the motivation to actually pursue my goals, I'm also determined to know myself, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

And last year was okay… I'll be the first to admit it. I honestly thought that I was fine and now I'm actually great. I'm excited about this new semester and year- waiting to see what lies ahead of me.

"I thought I was fine, and now I'm actually great."

But my point is that self-care is more important than we think. It's more than thinking you're "great". More than passing off as doing well if you're struggling. Be more in tune with yourself and determined to change what isn't working. Be conscious of when you need to take a step back and ask, "am I really okay?". Make more effort to eat better, lose those few pounds, or even just dragging yourself to the gym. New Year's resolutions are about more than physically taking care of yourself and not seeing the "whole you". Make 2019 the year of seeing you for all that you are.

After all, hindsight is always 20/20.