I want to start off by Wishing everyone a safe, happy, healthy, and hopefully prosperous 2022. 2021 was a very challenging year for many people. For myself, I faced many diverse health issues. I’ve written about several of them this past year so I won’t go into detail, but I am happy to report that I have gotten most, if not all of them, under control. Obviously, dealing with epilepsy, there are many aspects of this condition that will never go away, but with the proper medication as well as mindset and environment, many of those conditions can be mitigated.

The rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 all around the world has put more fear into people for the future. At the beginning of 2021, the world gained hope with the vaccines that were being developed by several companies. We had hope that we would get a handle on the virus so life could go back to what it was in 2019.

After many people took the vaccines, a lot of us let our guards down and stopped wearing masks, stopped social distancing, and basically just ignored all the precautions that we were asked to take in 2020 for our own safety. Unfortunately as a result of this, virus numbers have spiked In many countries and fear is once again becoming the predominant emotion that people were feeling instead of the hope that the vaccines brought.

As we leave 2021 and start the new year of 2022, we have to push the fear back and use our common sense to stay safe. We cannot allow fear to take over our lives and our emotions because fear will only make us act in ways that we would not normally, as well as affect our physical, emotional, and mental states.

For myself, I’m trying to keep a very positive attitude for the possibilities that 2022 can bring. Now that my physical and mental health are in a much better place than they were at the beginning of 2021, I can concentrate on getting myself back into an exercise routine that I like. I can learn new ways of cooking and share it with my social media sites for those who want to try different types of food. I’m hoping to complete a new BDSM basic guide for dominants as well as publish my first fiction book by the end of the year. I have many other ideas that I am working on with my husband Padrone Marco, but there are way too many for me to list. Well I am going to keep going forward, I will do it at a pace that I can keep up with, and not push myself too far where I fall back into old routines that were not healthy mentally or physically.

I’m not going to do the whole “new year new me” because I like where I am right now so I don’t want to become a new person. But there is always room for improvement, so if you need a motto for motivation, how about “new year improved me”? That’s exactly what I’m striving for in this coming year.

As hard as it is to keep a positive attitude, you have to find something that motivates you. What makes you happy? Or you can go the opposite direction and ask yourself what in your life makes you unhappy? A lot of times these questions come with answers that may surprise you but also may make you very uncomfortable. Being truthful and coming to terms with ourselves about our lives and our decisions is one of the hardest things we will ever do.

Like I say every year, if you are not happy with your job, try to get a new one. Is it easy? No. If you are not happy about working for someone else, research and try to become an entrepreneur and be your own boss. That is definitely a much more difficult path to take but it could be the right one for you. What I’m saying is don’t stay complacent with life as it is. If you’re complacent but not happy, are you truly living your life to its fullest potential?

I know for myself, I have not been for the past two years. Not just because of the coronavirus situation, but because of my own state of mind, as well as my physical and mental battles that I have had. It’s very difficult for me to share the problems that I’ve gone through and the challenges I’ve faced, but I do it because I hope that someone out there reads this and they think “I’m not the only one”. I want people to know they are not alone in their battles to make a better life, to improve their health, to improve their mental or emotional states. The first step is always the hardest.

When you take that first step, you are going to stumble. There will be times it feels like you’re going straight uphill without any way to reach the top, but you just have to dig in and keep going. You will slip back. You will have to take a rest sometimes, but always get back up and keep moving forward. That is the most important advice I can ever tell you about life. It took me a long time to learn that. I’ll be 49 years old in May and I’m just now learning what I wish knew 20 years ago.

So while we are going into 2022, don’t look at it from a negative perspective despite what the news is telling you or from the bad things that may be going on in your life. Think about it as a challenge to be overcome. Think about it as a light at the end of the tunnel. I know many people are going to read my words and think that there’s no way you can do something new; there’s no way you can improve; there’s no way that you can stay positive in current situations. You have to forge ahead and find a way. With a happy and healthy mindset, you can accomplish way more than you ever thought you could.

From Michelle Fegatofi Lifestyle, myself and Padrone Marco. Happy new year to all of you.