My One Intention for the New Year

Ok, it’s New Year’s Resolution time. In recent years, I’ve preferred to set intentions for the New Year instead of resolutions. In my experience, intentions have been more powerful and sustaining.

But all this talk of resolutions reminds me of the things I would like to change in my own life. So let’s just pretend I was setting a New Year’s resolutions list. This is what it would look like:

1. Asleep by 10pm. awake at 6am. Early morning workout.

2. Stop eating meat. Or at least make sure those animal products were humanely raised. Green juice every morning.

3. Only healthy foods for my kids. Green vegetables at every meal.

4. Declutter. Declutter. Declutter. Tap into my inner minimalist.

5. Read at least one book per month.

6. Stop looking at my phone before bed. In fact, don’t even let my phone in the bedroom. Stop looking at Twitter.

7. Write more!

8. Finish that training program(s) I purchased a year ago.

This is what the reality looks like: I average about six hours of sleep per night. I hardly workout anymore. I often fall asleep with my cell phone instead of with a good book. And I have too many reusable bags to know what to do with. My kid eats a lot of chicken nuggets because…sometimes it’s just easier…and I’m tired (see above re: six hours of sleep per night).

I would love to say I could keep all of those resolutions listed above for the New Year. But, let’s be real…

So here’s my conclusion. After sorting through all the muck of how I wish I acted differently, how I wish I could be more disciplined with my time and daily habits, I consolidated it all into one important intention for the New Year:

Release the judgement on others and myself.

That’s it. Release the judgement from the unmet expectations I have of others. And release the judgment from the unmet expectations I have of myself.

This is really hard work. Like, put my head under the pillow and hide kind of work. Which is exactly why this is my intention for the New Year. My resistance to it tells me it’s precisely what I need right now.

Doing this work doesn’t mean I’ll never have a judgmental thought about myself or another person. That’s near impossible.

But my intention is to become more aware of those judgmental thoughts. And to be able to release them when they arise, while replacing them with thoughts of love, compassion, understanding and connection.

So yeah, I would like to exercise and sleep more. I have too many unread books, and my kids eat way too much packaged food. Feeling guilty or judging myself about all of those things doesn’t make them better or different.

So I accept what is, love myself though it anyway, and make changes motivated by loving intentions.

Wishing you a very Happy 2018. Here’s to a new year filled with love, light, courage, adventure, laughter, and connection.

With much love,

Katie