A Year of US
As I have been saying from the start, my wife is my biggest supporter in everything I do. She has been encouraging me this whole time and has been helping me every step along the way. This week I wanted to talk about one of the things she suggested when I first brought up the idea of making this year something more. She suggested a couple’s journal called A Year of Us: One Question a Day to Spark Fun and Meaningful Discussion, a once a day journal you do with your partner for a year.
I have provided a link below if you are interested in buying the journal for yourself or just checking it out. When she first suggested it to me I was skeptical, it almost felt like a tool for couples who are struggling in their relationship to help them reconnect. However, I didn’t see a reason not to do it so we got the book and have been doing it every day since and I can definitely say it is not just for people with a struggling relationship.
I have enjoyed doing the book every day and I look forward to getting to lay down in bed and read the question every night. It facilitates a moment of togetherness, it provides a time to just share a moment with someone without anything else interrupting it. It also provides a way to learn things about your partner that you might not have already known. There are a lot of good questions that can spark a discussion as the title implies.
I can also see how the journal would be good for couples who are struggling as long as both parties are interested in doing the journal. There have been several questions that I could definitely see helping couples reconnect in various ways that they may have grown apart. You could even do the journal with a friend, but you may have to skip some of the more couple focused questions.
I think this brings me to another thing I want to work on this year: interpersonal relationships. It has been easy to blame Covid for a lack in personal relationships but I think that has become more of a crutch. Many people, including myself, haven’t been seeing their friends and family as much as they might have been before. For some people that is a good thing, people were able to see some of the toxicity in certain people and may be less inclined to reconnect with them. I think for most people, however, it has put a serious strain on some of their relationships and hopefully, now that the vaccine is more widely available, people will be able to reconnect.
Personally, this gave me time to turn my attention inwards. I was really able to focus on myself as a person and really try to figure out who I am. For example, if it wasn’t for Covid I don’t know if I ever would have started this blog. While Unus Annus was incredibly impactful in my decision, I don’t think I would have gone so far as starting a blog, and potentially a YouTube channel, if I didn’t have as much time to focus on myself. I do want to start working more on interpersonal relationships because I feel I have let a lot of mine slip.
Introspection, however, is never finished. It should be a balance between others and yourself. Everyone has their own balance point and I think this blog will allow me to consistently reflect on who I was, who I am, and who I want to become and find that balance point for myself. I have found journaling to be a really helpful tool when it comes to figuring out who I am. Whether it was the couples journal, the gratitude journal, or this journal, I felt like they all brought me closer to finding that sense of self I felt I had lost.
This year will be a year of growth. Not only in myself but in my personal relationships. I want to make myself more available to those around me and distance myself from the more toxic people in my life. The last one is a particularly hard thing to do, especially if they have been close to you for a while. It is hard to break long term relationships no matter how much you realize the person isn’t healthy for you or just isn’t a good person. I can’t provide any advice here because I myself have never truly had to do it yet. If you have any advice for breaking off toxic relationships leave a comment or send me an email I would love to hear from you.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if I said much of value this week but hopefully you were able to take something away from this. I have included a link to the journal below. It is an Amazon Affiliate link, so I do receive a percentage of all sales made through the link. It is a good way to support the blog if you were already going to purchase something anyway. Have a good week and happy Father’s Day!
