How many January 1st’s have you sat there with a new years resolution list that reads something like this?
– Lose ten pounds
– Stop drinking so much
– Exercise more
Yet by mid January you’ve already fallen off the wagon and are kicking yourself? Our whole society is geared up for January to be a month of punishing ourselves and changing as much as possible, it’s all every magazine and newspaper supplement talks about. But lets face it it doesn’t normally end in the results we crave. As I began to sit down and think about the year past and what I wanted to achieve in the new year I found myself slipping back into these sorts of resolutions and realised that they were all coming from a negative headspace. All of these sort of changes that focus on something we don’t like usually mean we don’t keep to them. I mean I’ve never lost ten pounds because I wrote it in a notebook, instead I had to find an exercise routine I fell in love with and stick with that. By finding something I loved I managed to fall in love with my body and what it could do and the weight became a secondary motivation. Set yourself goals which are aspirational but in a positive way. It may work for some people to have a super strict list of things they want to achieve but its never worked for me.
So my challenge to myself this year, and to you if you want to join me, is to set my resolutions from a place of positivity. Not what I want to change about myself or my life but what I want to evolve and experience. So here goes…
– Continue to push my body and learn what it can do, evolve my yoga practice and continue to learn
– Journal everyday in order to continue the learning I did while travelling
– Visit one new city or country (money dependent!)
– Take myself on dates once a month, it can be a walk, a day in a museum, anything just something where I give myself the space to breathe
– Start to build the yoga community and classes that I really want Yogipod to be, empowering my students and letting them learn what their body can do
– Embrace change as a good thing and not to be scared by it
These may not be the most difficult to achieve resolutions but I honestly believe by setting positive goals to achieve you can continue to grow throughout the year and not be kicking yourself that you’ve not already achieved what you wanted to. Maybe try journalling to keep a track of how you are doing with your goals, reward yourself when you achieve something and continue to build on those goals throughout the year. If you’re finding it easy to achieve a certain goal maybe up the anti or push yourself out of your comfort zone more. Focus on evolving as yourself and not trying to change who you are, learning what challenges you, but not giving up on it, looking from a different angle.
My biggest lesson I learnt in 2017? I AM ENOUGH… and do you know what? You are too, so evolve with positivity, don’t punish with negativity.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!