My favorite month and my five sacred habits

January is that girl

I LOVE JANUARY and everybody knows it.

And January 2024 was one of my best ever. I went through last month lowkey floating on air because of how good it feels to hibernate within my five sacred habits: morning pages, exercise, time outside, time with friends, and intentional sobriety. Let’s start with the stats.

What January 2024’s habits looked like

This is my giant rainbow wall calendar I’ve bought from Poketo three years in a row. I love that it starts with my favorite color. I put a fresh one up on my office door each month and write down important events coming up, then I use it for habit-tracking. I’m currently keeping track of my morning pages (J for journal), quality time outside (O, usually an hourlong walk), exercise (E), yoga (Y, also under the exercise umbrella), and days I socialize (S). And every bright pink X you see is a day I did not drink alcohol.

As you can see from my tally at the bottom, I ran, lifted, or went to yoga 23 days, wrote my morning pages on 21 days, got outside 18 days, and socialized IRL 14 days. And I did not drink alcohol 29 days.

It feels GOOD to see my stats written down like that. In January (and for most of the first three months of this year) I’ve intentionally cleared my schedule to make time and space for what matters to me this season. My calendar may be more empty, but look at how I filled it with the things that truly nourish me.

I used this month to take long, luxurious mornings writing in Unravel Your Year and figuring out what I want 2024 to look and feel like. (My word of the year is POSSIBLE!) I used January to plan out my Q1 in detail, from April backward, and write down the dozens of smaller tasks I need to get done to reach three main quarterly goals. (I have a huge Notion board now, it’s a whole thing.) I used it to train for a 5K run using Couch 2 5K — I ran my first half-hour straight on Feb. 6. As ever, I read a lot in bed, often piled high with two warm cats. Bliss.

But what feels especially good is that all of these habits are essentially automatic for me now. I started data-fying my habits back in 2022 when I took six months off drinking. I was committed to spending my time in better ways and cultivating the “adult” life of a creative person I longed for. I wanted to live in a way that would make me proud. Mindfulness around daily habits, hyper-awareness of scheduling, and some harsh self-restrictions have had huge positive effects for me. Two years later, these habits are so ingrained that I almost feel like my work here is done.

Physically “checking” my self-care items off on my big pink calendar is so satisfying. I track these specific habits because even if I only get two or three of them done, how can I not count that as a good day? Even on a day things keep going wrong, if I still got to the gym and saw a friend, or spent time outside and journaled, I feel I did something worthwhile. These small accountabilities with myself add up to a lot of Big Picture Joy, but also a lot more comfort in my skin and trust in my own ability to take care of myself.

But now let’s talk about the feelings these good habits make me feel. The natural high! The elation! The ease! The momentum! When I am riding high on my habits, getting great sleep, exercising regularly, soaking in Vitamin D, seeing my loved ones, creating art, and checking tons of stuff off my to-do list??? Honey… it’s something close to happiness. And I’ll take something close.

In January, I woke up feeling good and even excited for the day ahead. I was bursting with motivation to work on my business and personal projects. (I have so many special things to share with you all in the coming months!) I felt proud of myself and eager for my future.

I have no doubt that a huge chunk of that goodness comes directly from following through with my five sacred habits and doing all of the “small” things I know I need to make the BIG things feel so much easier.

And I’m convinced that a significant slab of those good feelings comes from one simple source: not drinking alcohol. The less I drink, the better I feel, down to my pores. I can feel my brain stretching and hydrating, doing pleasant cat-cow stretches to loosen up and sending endorphins off to fall in love with each other (I think I learned that in sophomore biology). I can certainly feel it in my positive mental health and my drive to get up and get shit done.

When I am clear-minded and ambitious I feel most like myself. When I do drink, I feel my natural lightness, determination, and motivation fade away. And that dullness can last for days just from a couple of glasses of wine.

I do drink socially, but I think I know that if I want to reach my creative potential, my soul demands extended sobriety.

*whispers* But I’m not ready to make that commitment right now so…
*”Turn it Off” from Book of Mormon starts playing*

I wrote down the best thing that happened every week in 2023, and I just went through them last night. Some variation of “I was in my habits this week and it felt so good” came up four times! (Another common theme: feeling known and seen by my family and friends.) On one hand, this is 35 and it’s so boring to yell about how good habits can change your life, but also, shoot these life-sustaining habits straight into my veins because they are that potent!!!

A July highlight from my “best of 2023” scraps: “Getting T Swift tix!!!”

Here’s my 2024 secret: I’m getting all kinds of messages from my High Priestess that habits actually need to be out for me in 2024. My Tarot cards have been telling me that these habits are written on my heart and it’s time to loosen my grip. I don’t need to write down that I took the long walk; I can simply go on the long walk and enjoy it, and let that be my reward. Maybe, instead, I can write about the Great Blue Heron that flew over the walkway in front of me, the family I saw filming a dancing TikTok, the baby goat that I got to pet on the way home.

(No, seriously, this is the baby goat I pet on my walk home. I got to hold him and you can send your valentine a GoatGram for $80.)

All of this is to say, it is immensely worthwhile to focus on what genuinely makes you feel good. I know my five sacred habits give me the energy and nourishment that two espresso martinis and a six-hour binge of Happy Endings could never, even though those things can feel so much easier to turn to in the moment.

What are your sacred habits? Are you giving them the space and attention that they deserve? If not, what’s one tiny-and-achievable way you can start focusing on them this week?