2009: Healthy, happy, and in control... I hope

I've always hated New Years resolutions. For as long as I can remember, they were always along the lines of "get skinny, find a boyfriend, be nicer to people". I never got much thinner, being a people person is not second nature to me, but at least the boyfriend found me about five years ago.

When January 2007 rolled around, I didn't make any resolutions. I had everything I wanted... and then the shit hit the fan. My 2008 resolution was to forget 2007 ever happened. But then 2008 became a continuation of miserable 2007: aroller coaster year full of joblessness, unfulfilled interviews, and major anxiety about moving to San Francisco. I moved here in June, found a job in late July, and things were rolling along well. Then, I started having debilitating, chronic migraines that were making me impossible to be around and making it very hard to focus at my fast-paced, absolutely crazy job.

So, for 2009, I'm not making resolutions. I am starting initiatives that will help me to sustain a relatively sane, healthy, and enjoyable lifestyle.

• Address health issues head-on. My doctor called me while I was on vacation to tell me that I have a cyst growing in my left sinus, pressing on nerves and causing my headaches. Normally I would avoid this and see if it got better on its own, but I will confront it. Also under this category: get over my fears and finally go to the dentist.
• Give my body what it wants. Since I was very small, I have thrived on multiple hours of physical exercise every day... this peaked my senior year of college when I was in dance rehearsal 11 hours/day, 5 days/week. I love being active, but have been too tired or lazy to really get out much. I'm going to get back into yoga seriously, do more cardio, and go on more hikes.
• Get back into dance. You know you need to do something if it is constantly in your brain, whether you are sleeping or awake. I dream about ballet every night and choreograph in my head to the music in television commercials. It's time to get back into it. What's the worst that can happen? I could blow out my knee. A third time. No sweat.
• Indulge my creative side. I'm a creative person by nature, but in working for a startup my creative endeavors were among the first victims of my new schedule. While the old standbys of photography and knitting are still there, I'm hoping that our buying a condo will help jumpstart a new DIY furniture refurbishment hobby!
• Spend more time and effort on my personal brand. I gave blogging, commenting on blogs, and being generally active in marketing myself a huge amount of time when I was unemployed. Since starting my job, I've only made 3 blog posts. This needs to change! I will commit to at least one blog post per week, actual participation on Digg, less random Tweeting, and I'll read/comment more as a whole.