The start of a new year always brings some excitement with it. New expectations. What will this year bring us. If we watch the news it doesn’t look that there is much to be excited about. However change starts within us and as we change to become a better human, the world will become a better place as well. It may sound a bit cliché, but it is all about perspective. Can you beauty in chaos. When you become stronger, healthier and more energetic, it will be easier to deal with what live brings to your door step.
Although we can start any time of the year or day with new resolutions, we often like to start them on January 1st . As some magical moment which often gets shattered a few weeks later into January. It is not that our heart wasn’t in the right place but maybe it was our approach.
We start with the greatest intention, want to lose weight, exercise more, get up earlier, meditate or whatever your goal may be. But in stead of slowly easing into the process or the new regime, we are so determined to change that we go all overboard. We start a rigid exercise plan of 5 days a week of HITT training, or an extreme diet. Start juicing in January which is so unnatural for the body in the Winter time, when we should nurture our body with warm foods. Or trying to get up at 4.30 am everyday, while normally you get up at 7.00 am in the middle of Winter when it is cold and dark. It is setting yourself up for failure. It’s like a pendulum. The harder you swing it, the harder it comes back at you.
We go at it if there is no tomorrow and with unrealistic expectations, like the ads we see “lose 30 pounds in 30 days”. It looks like we are punishing ourselves with these strict rules and regulations, because we have gone a bit overboard in December. We ate too much, we slept in too long, we didn’t exercise enough. So now you have to pay for it. Why are we so hard for ourselves? If we want to change to improve ourselves, shouldn’t we be kinder to ourselves?
Winter is the time of contemplation and making plans. Everything is dormant and it looks like nothing much is happening. However underneath the cold, ice and snow, new life is forming. And when Spring is coming everything bursts open and comes to life. Spring is the time for taking lots of action and cleansing and juicing. So follow nature. Make your plans and start small. If you need more exercise, start walking. Start with 10 minutes a day and build up from there. If you want to eat healthier, make small changes. Instead of juicing, make home made soups, which nurtures your body in the Winter time. Clean up your diet over a period of weeks and months. Want to get up earlier, start with getting up half an hour earlier and stay with that for a few weeks, till it gets easy and then go for another half an hour. By the time it gets Spring you will be able to get up at 5.00 am. Start with 10 minutes of meditation.
Be patient. Work with your body, feel and sense what it needs. Align with the seasons and your life will be more in flow.
Happy New Year.