My lovely people, January is my favourite month. Not only because it is the beginning of a New year where we can start afresh, we also still have the whole year ahead to work on whatever we set our mind to.
We definitely started afresh as on the 4th January we celebrated our 20th Anniversary in a very special way. It became a great day full of many surprises. Remember, I was back from Burundi where I had been working really hard for 3 months on various great projects. So of course, I made sure to be back on time in the Netherlands to be with my husband on our 20th anniversary.
He is such a romantic man, as he had planned some wonderful surprises for our special day. He took me to our favourite town, Rotterdam, where we stayed in an amazing hotel with a room with our own private jacuzzi and sauna! Then we went to a special place, a huge red heart along a canal in Rotterdam, where love couples lock in their commitment to each other. So on our wedding day (04/01/2023) we locked in our 20 years and committed to staying strong for another 20 years.
And some of you may remember that it is only two years ago when I started to work hard on a Healthy New Me and that my goal was to wear my wedding dress on our 20th wedding anniversary? To accomplish this I started to walk at least 10 km every day. Well, I am so proud to share with you that I reached my goal! The dress fit me perfectly. I am calling this my Golden goal!
So, what is my next big motivation? Still this month I was invited by Positive Now and HIV Ireland to the 4th National HIV Conference in Dublin, Ireland. The theme was "The Pillars of Wellbeing" and the first speaker was Prof. Paddy Mallon to update us on key topics related to HIV in 2023 and explain where we are and what we need to know. He explained about the HIV lifecycle and presented an update on injectable HIV medication. In the Netherlands we are a bit advanced on this topic as we already have people using this, so I could share some of the experiences from our community with the Irish HIV community. To the Irish participants he asked for more people to participate in clinical trials.
The second part of conference was focused on Wellbeing. This involved topics such as how to improve our wellbeing, how do mindfulness and meditation, how to break a bad habit and apply a new habit. My favourite exercise was the 'domino effect' where we learned how by starting to change something small you will be able to end up reaching your bigger target. We were also asked to write down our goals for 2023.
So after a successful 2022 where more a 'healthy new me' resulted in more fitness, weight control and even less medication intake (you see, A small domino can really knock over a bigger one!), what is my golden goal for 2023 and beyond? Positive Living!
I really want to keep my healthy new me lifestyle, and also to fiercely engage on HIV activism as a performer.
I would like to thank Positive Now and HIV Ireland and every person I managed to chat with in Ireland. Thanks to joining conferences and networks like this I am motivated to continue to be healthy and in Love for the next 20 years, and by the time I will be 66 years I want my wedding dress to fit me again!
I am so excited! Isn't this what I should call Positive Living?
Peace,
Eliane
This blog was originally posted on hivstigmafighter.
