Don't waste this New Year's Resolution on a diet. Make it powerful this year!
A resolution is an opportunity, a time of pause and reflection. In the past, I’ve blogged about how useless resolutions are because most of them don’t last. Gyms hit their overcrowded limits on January 2 and we can start counting the days when they’ll be empty again. Health gurus cash in this time of year with their weight loss promises. They know we’re all desperate after the holidays to shed a few pounds. I suppose that’s why I’ve been a naysayer of the resolution, its superficial expression empty to me. But it doesn't have to be. A resolution can be as powerful as we want it to be.
Don’t get me wrong. I mean, I am a nutritionist, for God’s sakes. I’m not saying to feel bad about wanting to lose that 10 pounds, especially if the doctor has handed you a threat of Type II Diabetes or other health problems. I’m just saying those holiday habits will transform naturally with the new year because there will no longer be egg nog or Christmas cookies or Auntie Cathy’s pumpkin cheesecake. Life will settle back in, and so will we. I packed on the typical few pounds over break, but I refuse to waste my New Year’s resolution on a dietary strategy.
My health is an everyday resolution.
So what are my intentions for 2017, beyond my own body weight?
One year, my most magical year, I spent the New Year with my friend, Lizzie. She had built a fire outside and presented each of us with a piece of paper instructing us to “write down everything you want to get rid of, and throw it into the fire.” So I did. I don’t remember exactly what I had written, but it felt great.
Then she handed us another piece of paper and an envelope.
“Write down what you want to manifest for 2014,” she said.
So I did. I remember being worried about my family, Bea starting college. I wrote a few intentions on that list.
When I opened up the note the following New Year’s Eve, I was stunned to see that everything had happened. I had a new job (one that had fit all the criteria I needed) and I had started praying regularly again. I forgot what else there was, but those were the biggies. I remember making those intentions with my children at the center of them. My mom intentions had some power.
This year, I feel a pull to Mom the World. I need to find a way to articulate this intention. I’m tired of living in a microcosm of worry and self-survival as I watch our world fall apart. 2017 needs us to shift huge. Our world is on crazy pills and needs Peace.
Peace is not some cute and gold-gilded word for the holiday card. It is not a pie-in-the-sky “made by unicorns” belief. Peace is real. It begins in our own hearts and it spreads like raging wildfire, if we let it.
Be that Radical Peace.
Live it every day.
Teach it.
I bet my pounds will all fall into place if I focus on that.
Happy 2017, Everyone!
