Happy New Year!!
You may be thinking, "yeah... that time of year again that I am supposed to have a whole new set of habits I need to develop and an old set of habits to kick."
Hear me out. What if we just picked one thing? It could be one thing to kick? One thing to start? One thing for each corner of wellness such as, for my mental health I want to set a limit to how much I scroll on social media, for my physical health I want to go on a walk 3x a week, for my spiritual health I want to start a prayer journal. If we make a massive list of habits to quit, and new habits to pick up, it starts to become overwhelming, and unrealistic.
Sometimes if we can break things into smaller, bite size pieces, it's a lot easier to manage or be successful.
This looks different for everyone. Maybe there is one thing that is really holding you back or a habit that is so important to break that all of your energy needs to go into this one thing. Maybe you feel like you may have the capacity to quit one bad habit, and pick up a healthy new habit. It is totally up to you, with no judgement of yourself, and most importantly you commit to having grace with yourself, and not giving up.
Creating or quitting habits is hard. The best thing to commit to, even more than the habit, is the grace. If you mess up, start over right then, the next day, whatever it takes. Keep starting over until you develop this new habit or lifestyle.
Another point to consider is that maybe it's best for your well being to not use this time to end or create habits. It may be a fresh beginning for you to forgive someone, to let go of resentment, to set a dead line to call your family member or friend you haven't wanted to talk to, to sign up for that class or certification you've been wanting to sign up for, do something you have been fearful of. One of my favorite things to do at the new year is purge, and deep clean.
You get to choose how to kick off this next year for YOU! It's okay if it looks different than your friend's start to their new year, or if you decide to just pick one simple thing, or if you have to restart a thousand times.
My biggest encouragement to you is to do something. Big or small. Look at this new year as an opportunity. A lot of times new years has a bad reputation because it reminds people of a time they have failed or didn't follow through with their new goals, etc. If nothing changes, nothing changes. If what you've done in the past doesn't work, let's do something different this year to make your goals or aspirations more obtainable.
Do you have any new years traditions or goals? How do you stick with your goals? If you have a hard time, what are you planning on doing differently this year?
I hope you have the best new year, and get a fresh start! Please let us know how we can support you, and we will always try to meet you where you are!
With love,
Mak
