Happy New Year! Setting Intentions for New Beginnings

Photo by Anna Tarazevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/letter-tiles-beside-mandarins-6027785/

As I return from vacation and start the new year fresh, I am hearing friends and family talk about their New Year resolutions. I firmly resolve not to set resolutions. The very definition of resolution is "a firm decision to do or not to do something."

On the surface that feels like a clever idea. You are going to make changes and start doing something "better" or stop doing something "bad" for yourself. Initially it is motivating, but we humans tend to be bad at making reasonable, obtainable goals for ourselves. Your resolution to hit the gym and get fit and healthy becomes a guilty weight around your neck every time you must miss a workout. Your decision to lose weight and diet starts to feel like a mental anchor each time you have a snack, see the scale increase, or decrease less than you had envisioned.

Becoming healthy and fit are great goals as well as the many other resolutions we set, but you must be mindful of how you go about it, so you are setting yourself up for success instead of failure. Don't buy into the diet culture, don't rush out to get a gym membership. Don't set yourself up for anxiety and decreased feelings of self-worth by setting a resolution.

For me, I will set intentions and manage the steps needed to fulfill those intentions in small, obtainable steps. Here are my intentions for 2024

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I intend to increase my personal meditation practice to a more regular schedule to seek out the joy and peace of the day/year

• Acknowledge the frequency of my current practice - 2-3 times a week

• Set a goal for desired frequency - daily

• Set reasonable expectations for intention   

  • January set up a comfortable place for my meditation tools and cushions in my office where they are visible each day and not out of sight out of mind.

  • February pick one additional day a week to take 15 minutes at the end of that workday to sit in contemplation of the positive circumstances which happened. Perhaps it is reflecting on the way the sunrise looked through my office window, or the achievements of my team, or that we survived the day and still ended it laughing.

  • March through July add an additional day each month to do the same.

  • July through December increase one day to 30 minutes where possible

• Refuse to chastise myself when I miss a session as this is an intention not a resolution. I intend to do this, but I am not bound to my own feelings of failure if I make a misstep.

I wish you all the brightest and most meaningful year. Thank you for allowing me to share a few of my thoughts on resolutions vs intentions.

-A