Today’s prompt for Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 5 is ekphrasis, which is the Greek word for “writing about art” (I had to look it up). Here is the image I’m supposed to write about:
To me, this image represents new life. In biology class many moons ago, I learned about terminal buds – those pointy buds that grow at the very tips or ends of branches. This image reminds me of how each spring nature gets to start over. This can happen with diabetes management too.
Sometimes we set new goals, maybe New Year’s Resolutions, where we toss aside old habits that may have gotten a little out of control. We enter a “new beginning” in terms of taking medications more consistently, exercising more frequently or with more intensity, making healthier food choices or cutting certain foods out of our eating plan, and so on.
New beginnings are refreshing, motivating, and can even inspire us to make changes that stick for the long-haul. Heidi Grant Halvorson, who has written an entire book about goal-setting, says to set specific and difficult goals. We need to figure out if we are working on a why goal (motivation toward something bigger) or a what goal (just getting through a difficult task).
New beginnings in diabetes management (or anything else) can happen any time. For several nights in a row this week I was eating a snack that was causing me to wake up with a high blood glucose level the next morning. Last night I tried not eating anything before bed and I woke up right in my target range.
What’s your new beginning?