New Year's Intentions

The New Year is like this empty page as I start to write. Wide open with possibility, it calls us to create, explore, and expand. We often respond with New Year's Resolutions, promises we make to ourselves or others for some action or behavior we believe will improve us. We review the year just past and set our intention to do things differently, start something new, or just not do those things that hinder or hurt us.

The beckoning of the New Year’s invitation to stretch into our expansive potential can be inspiring, but it can also be challenging. And often, as years come and go and resolutions drop by the wayside, we are left asking, “What’s the use? Why bother?”

Why, indeed. Why do we want to…lose weight, stop that bad habit, spend more time with family? 

Why?

Ultimately, if we’re honest and keep asking, we discover the answer lies in how we want to feel. We want to feel energetic, enthusiastic, free, connected, loved. However we describe it, it is the feeling we are reaching for. When we get in touch with what that feeling is, we have a powerful foundation for changes we decide to make.

One approach to New Years intentions is to first get in touch with how you want to feel, and let the feeling be your goal rather than specific actions. For instance, if you want to feel more energetic, use that feeling as the touchstone for actions you take. Choose actions and behaviors that help you feel more energetic. In this way, you may elect to eat healthier foods or start a new exercise class because you want to feel more energetic and these actions help you gain that feeling, not because you think you should do them. You may want to add an affirmation such as “I feel energetic!” and spend a few minutes imagining how it would feel to embody being energetic. Simply concentrating on your desired feeling can inspire actions or behaviors that support it, so focus on your desire for more energy and let it guide you to new choices.

Recognize that reaching a desired feeling may happen in a variety of ways. You may even find you change existing actions or behaviors without thinking about it, because deep inside you are reaching for that feeling. So, ask “why?” Find the feeling. And the rest will fall into harmony with it.

“Look for the harmony.”  Mary Burmeister