As we embark on the new year we all want to make a fresh start, many times this shows up as diets, cleanses, and giving things up. A fresh start is something I love about January; it feels like a beautiful, clean slate to work with. Many of us begin to make our resolutions, which feels good at first. It is a bit like falling in love – we pick a grand idea and romanticize it, we get a big boost of dopamine and can’t wait to dive in. But at a certain point we see things a little more clearly and that lovely romance wears thin, usually in March.
For such a very goal-oriented individual it might surprise you to learn I have always been terrible at resolutions and never seem able to make one stick. Maybe you feel the same? I didn’t realize until the last few years why this did not work for me. It’s because making a huge change in one night is not enough to help anyone succeed at something. I’m not all of a sudden going to wake up and feel completely different and have amazing will power the next day. This fantasy also evokes a lot of self criticism and failure when we don’t succeed, things none of us wants to feel.
This year I encourage you to consider your resolution as an intention and to give it present tense, something that you are visualizing yourself succeeding at already. I hope to avoid the trap of self criticism, relax my perfectionism tendencies and stop seeking validation through my goals. When you set your intentions, they are for you and you alone. They won’t make you better a better person, because you’re perfect right now. They won’t make you more valuable, because you have more than enough value right now. And they won’t make you more beautiful in the eyes of others, because you are already beautiful.
You may have seen that I will be making 12 microintentions, these will each be a month long and focused on adding to my life (not taking away) and supportive for my body and the environment. This month I am following the leaky gut protocol to support my digestion. Stay tuned for next month’s blog on what it means to follow a leaky gut protocol and my progress. Happy New Year!