2023: Playing the long game

Happy 2023! I hope every has had a gentle first week of the new year, whatever it may have brought to you. I have always loved the excitement and energy surrounding the new year, and the feeling of freshness and rebirth. I know that you can really decide to make a goal, resolution, or change in habits at literally any time of the year; but something about the collective society coming together all at approximately the same time (Gregorian vs Lunar calendar etc.) to start a new cycle motivates me to try to be better.

I used to get trapped in a mindset of feeling incredibly motivated and make several lofty resolutions...ie: go to the gym 5 days a week, drink a morning smoothie every single day, be in bed by midnight always blah blah blah. However setting resolutions in this manner---living in absolutes---ultimately led to me typically fall short of 100% obedience fairly quickly into January. This inevitably left me feeling guilty, shameful, and ill-equipped of change year after year. Thoughts such as, ..."How am I ever going to get better at anything if I can't even commit to working out routinely for one month!?" would swirl round my mind, leaving me feeling inadequate of progress.

I have learned over time that not only does setting goals in this way not work for me, but it leaves me often feeling negative emotions and thoughts about myself. In fact, getting into these negative repetitive thought patterns is actually unhealthy on a cellular level! Studies have made correlations between repetitive negative thinking and increased risk/predisposition to neurological decline such as dementia and Alzheimers disease.

So not only is being kinder and gentler with ourselves just an overall nice thing to do, it is actually a healthier way live a brain healthy life. I have tried to be better about this by looking goals, intentions, and manifestations as habits that I would like to develop and consciously act upon this but try not to get too hung up on the day to day statistics.

For example; one of my intentions this year was to become more mindful + present as well as cutting back on my screen time. I am looking at this as an overall pull back from my dependence on my phone/technology and a need for dopamine detoxing and breaks. I bought a gratitude journal which I try to write in prior to allowing myself to turn on the TV for the day. I also have tried to set a rule for myself that I don't look at my phone the first or last hour I am awake.

While I have set these requirements: what I have also tried to be better about is not getting mad at myself when I slip. I would say I have performed this habit about 50-60% of the time during the first two weeks of the year, but these next two weeks hopefully I will able to get this number even a little higher :)

What are some of your intentions, goals, or resolutions? I would love to hear! I am always so inspired by the actions of others, and find so much motivation for my own journey!