New Year, Loving the Old You

This is the time of year when the words “New Year, New You” are plastered all over  magazines, and the message or something similar, is a daily visitor to my inbox. I see the ads for a hundred different ways to create a “New You” on social media. Do I see this as a call to positive action or a reminder that I am not good enough? Usually a bit of both. 

Everyone is familiar with the pattern of starting the new year off with resolutions. I resolve to lose 10 pounds! I resolve to save $100 a month! I resolve to eat more vegetables! You get the idea. I am sure many of you are even thinking about it and making lists. I am sure many of you have had lots of experience with making them and breaking them. Maybe even some successes.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way saying that taking action to change your life in positive ways is a bad thing. I am in the business of supporting people in changing their lives! 

I am mostly talking about how we take these actions. 

What if...

What if we start with a first, maybe radical step...

Here it is- try on this thought for a moment-

 I am okay, more than okay, just as I am. 

What if we start by affirming our imperfect, delightfully messy, unique, beautiful selves!?

I told you it was a radical start, but trust me where it leads is most likely just where you want to go in 2019.

Take a deep breath, maybe another, and let that sink in. 

If ever there was a year for self-compassion, this is it. If ever there was a time for self-compassion, the time is now.

For too long we have been our worst enemy and our harshest critic, sometimes out of old habit, or falsely thinking it was the way to change behavior.
I invite you to start to think about 2019 from this place of believing that who you are is already enough and that all the seeds of change are already within you waiting for nourishment and attention- from You!

Now begin to think about how you want to feel in 2019, who you want to Be? 

What would you have to do to become who you most want to be?

How would it be to imagine talking to yourself about these questions as you would your own precious child, or a dearly beloved friend? Imagine the way you would listen and reflect back the truth of what you hear. Can you do that for yourself? Can you hold your own heart with gentleness and love?

I imagine you might have a very different list of possibilities for 2019 if you did. You might even choose a word for the year that truly embraces what you want to manifest in the year ahead. Not from a place of needing to be something that you are not, but from a place of becoming more of who you want to be. 

As I look at my own list of potential self improvements through this lens, I see what I have written transformed into beautiful poetic wishes-

To listen to my body and move and dance more throughout the day

To rest when I feel I need a break

To put my bare feet on the ground as many days as I can

To nourish my body with delicious and nutrient filled foods

To spend time in silence in the morning to appreciate life and the beauty around me

To put my words down on paper or computer simply because I love to write…

I would love to hear what happens for you as you embrace your delightful imperfect self and step into the new year with self compassion and possibility.

Let’s start the new year, loving the old you!

May you flourish in the year ahead!