A look back on my word for 2016

My word for 2016 was best. Do what's best and live the best life. This year was good. Great, even. But it wasn't my best. Best may have not been the best word to live by in 2016. What I needed was an action word...

It was a challenging year on many fronts but challenging is not necessarily bad. Challenges help us grow, they shape us, and they make us stronger.

The biggest challenge for me this year was dealing with anxiety. Sometimes severe anxiety. The kind of anxiety that takes over your whole being and paralyzes you. But I learned how to function and push through it even though every fiber of my body was resisting. Allowing myself to drop everything and just breathe has helped immensely. Being open about my anxiety and talking about it has helped a lot, too. 

This year we moved into a new house, celebrated five years of marriage, and patted ourselves on the back for keeping our little monster alive and well for a whole year and a half. We celebrated wins and learned from the losses. We grew stronger.

I feel like we have a lot of uncertainty ahead of us in 2017 but as long as our core is strong, and we survived 2016, we can survive anything.