Twenty-Second and Final Entry (November 14th, 2021)

     Today was the final day of this project, which I was very excited for. I had a pretty calm and relaxing day because I made sure to prioritize resting after such a busy and physically taxing weekend I had, and when I finally engaged in the deep breathing exercise, I was able to lay down and focus on all of my growth since the start of this project, which made me really happy and helped me relax in my final moments of the project. My goals of this project was to decrease the amount of stress I experienced in my life, increase my willingness to engage in self-care, and figure out what self-care means to me in a world where I am expected to serve others due to my position in society as a Black woman, and while reaching these goals, I also learned about how self-care can and should look different for me each day depending on how I am feeling (such as wanting to spend time with my loved ones instead of being alone and engaging in deep breathing), I addressed misconceptions I had about self-care and relaxation, found myself to be more energized and productive after deep-breathing when I knew there was something I had to complete, used the deep breathing practice more than once throughout the day, examined why engaging self-care was so hard for me, and even learned how deep-breathing and other self-care practices can help you deal with grief. Although this project was difficult to complete because it was something I could never successfully do in the past, I was able to finish it out strong despite all of the setbacks and the grief that I experienced over the course of this project. This project was exactly everything that I needed in this time of my life and more, and I am actually able to say that I was able to change in a positive way because of engaging in deep-breathing daily and recording my experiences, which is something I am immensely proud of.

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