Another New Year,

I’m sure many of you were still mistakenly writing 2021 on your paperwork in lieu of 2022 last week, the new year being well…new. My day job doesn’t allow me to fully experience that newness buzz, because I plan for a living. Namely in current circumstances in this part of the world (BREXIT / COVID), I’ve had to plan resources for 2022 since mid-2021. What I cannot escape though is the need a lot of us feel to look back and evaluate the past year, as well as the urge to press the reset button and hope / plan for new beginnings.

Out with the old, in with the new! New Year New Me! 2022, Bring it on!! Going all in this year! These are the sort of quotes we put out there in the universe, self-talk to create accountability I guess.

Is there a real break between December and January in actuality? Not really. Our lives don’t magically metamorphose. New year, same circumstances. Jumping from 31^st December to 1^st January will not mechanically lead to radical behaviour changes. I can see however how the year change can trigger a mental shift, albeit sometimes just temporarily. The difficulty is to follow through and keep at it, because reality will subtly more often than not take over. How are you approaching this new year? Is the concept of new year even a thing for you?

I’ve got a few new-ish things to expand on, as this is more of a continuum to me.

grace

I endeavour to gift myself grace on a constant basis. Frustrating at every fall is just tiring and extremely toxic for our mental health. We already know that failures are sometimes our best teacher, so resilience is key. Learning to forgive ourselves and let go is an absolute necessity I believe, because we can only get stuck in a pit if we don’t drop unnecessary baggage and travel light. We live and we learn.

intentionality

I’m also learning to remind myself of my power to choose. This helps with practising intentionality, which allows us to consciously and willingly act upon our desires. Obviously being intentional doesn’t mean we will achieve everything we want to; but at least we have a fighting chance to do more than scrapping the surface, by giving a serious go at our goals.

The Beginning is the most important part of the work. – Plato

gratitude

Expressing gratitude is a tremendously powerful tool that assists us in focusing on the bright side. It can be quite tricky to reach for bigger and better, while not appreciating what is already within reach. Feeling grateful fills us with positivity, enabling us to overcome our fear of trying new things.

silence

A very foreign thing I’m starting this year is introducing silence breaks. Silence. Reclaiming my attention back. For the longest time I’ve been unable to accept silence, dwell in it. I’m an only child so silence has always terrified me. I have no issue being physically alone, but I’ve always needed some sort of background noise. I guess I’ve come to a life breakthrough, as I’m daring to face silence at last. Great for my mind, my focus, my overall balance. Now I’m not going to behave like a monk and take day-long silence baths! 5 minutes of silence here and there will be enough. For now. Every little helps.