A New Year's Resolution
The New Year, of the Gregorian calendar, is still in the middle of winter. The hype of Christmas and this calendar year end builds the expectation of change and the road to better things.
I think it useful not to forget that it is still mid-winter, and as such the natural world is still very much asleep on this side of the globe. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if we too aren’t feeling the surges of energy we hope for when we made resolutions, while on a sugar rush and Christmas hangover.
I too have made plans, mapped out visions and desires. I have written down new habits I want to incorporate in my daily routine and structured my work for the year ahead.
Now that January is here and I am getting back into my work life, I am aware of the “winter” in me. My first reaction to this lack of energy was annoyance. It irritated me that my mind isn’t doing what I want it to do, to ‘get results’. I followed up these thoughts with a decision to be gentle with myself.
Instead of pressuring myself with expectations for results, I want to try and just live for living’s sake, do for the sake of doing and not expect results to show immediately. I have noticed that while impatiently waiting for results, I forget to act. It just doesn’t come fast enough, and it soon feels depleting, and I wonder ‘what is it all for?’.
So, this year, I have decided that I will start this year slowly, with the awareness that the purpose is in the action itself. The experience of the momentary satisfaction of living and doing. The vision and goals can and should be there, if I intend to live with purpose and ambition. But the difference in approach is quite simply in the understanding that the vision is the cherry on top. The present moment is the whole cake, and reason why the cherry sits on top in the first place.
Afterall, I get to decide how to do my life :).
On this note, I wish you all a gentle and mindful start to the New Year. One that will give you the ideal foundations for it to grow into something beautiful.
Yours truly,
Sofia
