New Years Resolution: Swap Resolutions for Words of Power

And so we have closed the chapter of this part of our lives that was shaped and grown by our experiences in 2018. We turn the page seeing the blank expanse of possibility open before us that is the new year. What will it bring for us - joy, health, love, satisfaction in work, the loss of one dear to us or a new life to our tribe?

Traditionally, we ask ourselves what goals we want to achieve in the new year. Perhaps we even write a list which we Title and Underline with marked importance in our fresh page announcing a promise and an expectation of “New Years Resolutions”. We write down heartfelt words that summarise what parts of us we do not like and those we wish to improve on and our deepest desires that we have not yet had the time or courage to act upon.

Often we assess our physical self and believe that any change would make us much happier and possibly more easier to love. Due to our culture’s obsession with perfection we might declare that an easy 5 or 25 kg in weight loss, conversely we could also wish to gain weight being labelled as too skinny, or gain muscle to be stronger. We are so rarely believe we are enough as we are or worthy as we are.

I am sure I am not alone in writing lists with hope for all I can achieve and change in the entire year that is stretched out before me. The notorious Bridget Jones herself gets a new diary for the year and writes a similar list herself keeping record of her progress or complete lack of progress.

These New Year Resolution Lists usually include:

• weight loss

• exercise more

• learning a new language (was yours French or Spanish?)

• spending more time with my family

• volunteering for a charity

• asking for a promotion or pay rise for my hard work

• more travel

• quit smoking

• save more money/spend less

• learning a new skill or hobby

The single good thing about New Years Resolutions is that they help us see the possibilities in our life as endless and that we can achieve and change our lives in huge and drastic ways to create the life we wish to lead. However, for the most of us these resolutions become weights upon our neck. Life just seems to get busier, time flies so fast that we can have difficulty keeping up with normal day to day life - let alone our amazing New Year Resolutions. Suddenly, it’s March and we haven’t even started our new skill or hobby and our gym just gets dusty.

The first page of our chapter in 2019 that was so full of hope Titled and Underlined with possibilities more often leads us to feel like we are failing. Resolutions can increase our negative thinking, anxiety and self doubt, and often we fall even more behind in what we wish we could achieve.

There is a way to improve your life while also working towards your goals in a more constructive way that actually helps improve your mental health while also lessening the power of anxiety and negative thinking. The tool merely helps you to change your focus from an expectation of how you should look or achievements to tick off from your list into how you want to feel in the year that lies before you.

In choosing a few words that really mean something to you you take the power in each day in this new year you can feel wonder, gratitude and appreciation of yourself for having this feeling. When I first read of this from Danielle La Porte in her book “The Desire Map” she suggests you pick 5 words and these will be the Desire Map to shape what you and your future should feel like. Often these words were once already a part of our lives but we need to reconnect to that part of us.

I chose the word “Abundance”. Everything before me became abundant whether it was a meal I had made, colours of flowers when I was outside, an afternoon with friends, weather was experienced in abundance whether it was wonderfully sunshiney or a cosy and rainy afternoon. A completely new new experience was an abundance in my bank account!

Shaking off depression like an old snake skin the word “Fiery” helped me remember my passions in reading or writing, the heat and sweat of exercising, late night debates with family, dancing in a kitchen with new or old friends.

The word you choose isn’t strictly related to it’s definition as when we experience a feeling the cause for the emotion can come from a huge range of normal every day moments in your life. You can be strong when you deal with a difficult situation at work or with a loved one, or when you are working towards your fitness goal. You can be expanding when you take a different way to get home, venture to a new art exhibition, learn a new foreign word or a new skill, when you read a new book or listen to a new podcast. You can be stable when you choose to stay in one place for a year and you even decorate, when you have savings, sign a lease, celebrate old friendships and spend time with family, when you make every Monday Meatless or simply dedicate time to meditate each day.

When your New Years List is swapped for a feeling, or what I like to call a Word of Power, every moment before you is an opportunity to be mindful and then to realise with perhaps a little surprise and wonder that you are achieving your new goals in whatever way you are living. It slowly helps you to abandon your negative thoughts replacing them with these words of power that literally change your mindset. Replacing the lacklustre list of expectations with how you wish to feel in your future gives you the control of creating each day. Each moment becomes a vision with a driving emotion of your true nature and as you keep these words alive in your every day this force will be your compass on the path to becoming the person you wish to be in 2019.

Pick a word from this list or come up with your own:

Ablaze
Abundant
Adventurous
Affluent
At home
Beautiful
Bliss
Content
Connected
Creativity
Centred
Courage
Devotion
Driven
Ease
Energised
Empowering
Expanding
Heard
Feminine
Flow
Fiery
Free
Giddy
Gratitude
Grounded
Illuminable
Lightness
Loving
Luxurious
Ineffable
Intentional
Magical
Momentum
Nourished
Nurturing
Open
Peaceful
Playful

Protected
Potent
Powerful

Pure
Secure
Sexy
Soft
Stable
Strong
Spacious
Sunny
Thankful
Thriving
True
Vibrant
Vital
Worthy
Whimsical
Wholesome

With the dust from the previous year settling around our feet we will wait expectantly with these words of power to see what seeds will take and what flowers or fruits will bloom.

May each and every moment in this year be everything you wish it to be and so much more.