Setting Intentions for the New Year
Happy New Year!
I hope the last few blogs helped you thrive through the busy holiday season! Practicing gratitude is often easier said than done, but the more you work the muscle, the more second nature it becomes. As we start the new year, I wanted to take a moment to talk about setting intentions and what that might look like. I think most of us are familiar with the idea of a new year’s resolution, but I’d like to challenge the way you approach your resolutions this year. Oftentimes, when setting goals for the new year, there is heavy emphasis on starting immediately, and then shortly after we start, we find ourselves burning out and settling back into our old familiar routines. And unfortunately, the guilt and shame spiral fueled by dreary and cold winter days follows shortly behind our abandoned resolutions; but there is no need to feel bad. Let's shift focus this year!
Our resolutions can be less task oriented and more intention based. What do I mean by this? Ask yourself what you’d like to bring more of into your life and lean into the feeling, rather than the task at hand. For example, instead of thinking “I’ll work out more”, think “I intend to move my body with purpose”. When our goals are broad, non specific, and feeling based rather than task oriented, they’re errorless. When our goals are errorless, there is no space for guilt and shame to exist. If you find it difficult to do this, try identifying your core values and describe ways you can live your life to embody these values in everything you do. Some people use vision boards or journals, others may write songs or poems, but whatever you choose to do, speak in present tense language. In keeping with practicing gratitude, making positive, present tense statements like “good things happen to me all the time” or “I am open to new experiences” claims our future hopes as our current reality. Repeating these statements, or “mantra-ing”, is a type of ritual to help us ground these ideas, and shift our mindset to make them our reality.
The most important aspect of intention setting for the new year is recognizing that this is not the time to spring into action. Forcing external growth when it’s time for rest and reflection is what leads us to burnout and to abandon our goals so soon after setting them. Letting these intentions marinate, and getting familiar with our feelings in our new reality before it blooms will help propel us forward when the time to grow emerges. Embrace your thoughts, nurture your mind gently, and practice mindfulness. Are you feeling positively or negatively? Dig a little deeper. Is it joy or fear? Is it peace or sorrow? Acknowledge these feelings by writing them down, speaking them out, or moving your body. As you nurture yourself and your goals remember to practice fluidity. Intentions can change. Take what resonates and leave what doesn't. Nothing is set in stone. And don’t worry, when the spring rolls around, I’ll pop in with a blog post to remind us that it’s time to bloom. For now, take the time to reflect and let your intentions grow as nature does. When we follow the natural rhythms of life and quit trying to force everything on our own time, the beauty we can appreciate along the way is amazing.
Author: Kelly Weaver, MT-BC
Editor: Cassadi Kulak, MT-BC