I want to feel different this New Years.

I know I'm not the only one who has always been setting some huge goals for the new year, like "I'm going to quit smoking, I'm going to exercise more and eat less junk food," etc. and that's great, we always should have things that we are working towards. Recently, however, with the help of Yoga Journal , I got to thinking a lot about New Years resolutions and why they are so unnecessary. I think most years I make the same resolutions, and by about the end of January I forget what resolutions I ever made or why I made them. When it comes to resolutions or intentions, I realize now that the Why? and How? is so much more important than the What?

If you don't have reasons for a life change, then why make it? If you don't make any kind of plan to change things, you aren't going to just wake up one morning a whole different person. Just recently, I stopped drinking coffee. It was a change I wanted to make for myself to be healthier, have more energy throughout the day and be able to sleep better at night. I have been a pretty avid coffee drinker since as far back as I could remember, and I knew how hard it would be to stop drinking it. But I had good reasons to do this for myself and my own benefit, and once I was determined, the how pretty much came easily. I cut down a little at a time, and found new things to drink in the morning such as very low caffeine teas, sometimes even warm water with lemon and a bit of raw honey. Both of these choices have done AMAZING things for me...my breath smells better without gross coffee breath, my skin seems to hold moisture better without all of the caffeine, my immune system has been great so far this winter, and my favorite part is that by 11am I don't feel like I need to take a nap or drink more coffee. The point I'm making is that I made a plan to do something (even if its a small thing) better for myself, with only myself in mind, and I think that's really what New Years should be about.

In the article I posted above, Kempton talks about recapitulation and developing your own process of letting go of the past and getting excited about the things you have to look forward to. Resolutions are sometimes just empty promises you make to yourself and end up forgetting anyway, so why make them? This year, I'm challenging myself to instead forget the mistakes I've made this past year as well as the things people have done to me that weren't so nice. And maybe set a few intentions for myself to do things better this year. When you admit regrets and bad moments, you are able to forgive yourself and forgive other people, doing this sets you free, too. You're able to get past negative things and you're able to get clutter out of your life, you're free to live simply and at peace with yourself. And when you finally feel free from any pain and guilt of the past year, I, at least, look forward to what the new year will bring and how my new intentions will change me. Already I'm looking forward to bringing to light all of the things I feel need to be cleared from my conscience, and I'm looking forward to starting fresh with the best of intentions. I'd love for you to share any intentions of your own with me as well! I'm sure to share all of mine;)

Peace & Love