New Year, Same Me
And that is good news
The New Year vibe is a thing. It can often be a toxic thing and one I got swooped up into for years.
With my current vantage point of wisdom, I can plot my evolution as follows:
New Year - Type A goal freak
New Year – Endless self-improvement
New Year – Best Year Yet!!!
New Year – skip resolutions, set more holistic goals
New Year – intentions, themes, and words of the year (I still lean into this when and if I feel called.)
Tracking the trajectory from:
There is something wrong with me to … Damn! I like who I am!
Something about New Year’s Hoopla rubs me the wrong way. The overriding dark pit of - Never enough! The societal message of you are not good enough and you need to improve yourself at all times. Especially when you change out the calendars on the wall because it is a new year. New Year! New You!
Ever damn year by the way…
As if somehow we should swap ourselves out like a new pair of shoes. Bye bye! Let’s start over!
While I shed this bit of self-abuse a while ago, it is only recently that I arrived at a new juncture in this path.
Why not New Year, Same Me. (not the meme)
New Year, More Me.
New Year, Deeper (version of) Me.
I see this not as casting off growth or improvement or learning. Quite the opposite. I LOVE to learn. I have been leaning into my next growing edge over and over the past few years. So much so that I need rip-proof clothes from all those prickly edges.
What is different is the idea of acceptance. Dare I say taking a hot minute to note that I truly like the person I am. (Next growing edge on the horizon – more deeply loving and celebrating the human I am.)
What if instead of the fabricated distraction of New Year propaganda, we all turned the volume down “out there” and listened more to “in here”.
(Consider who is benefiting from you distracted and throwing money and time at this “better you”?)
Society and the systems all around us do not like it when you or I become immune to the BS, call out the brokenness, or put more importance on our own truth than some pithy slogan.
What does this look like in practice for me?
Pondering intentions that will bring me deeper into the life I want to be living and the person I am.
Marinating on a few words/phrases as “themes” to use as a touchstone along the way.
Stopping every day, often many times a day to notice what it is I want and need. In the moment, the day, the year, this lifetime.
Advocate for me.
Take action based on this knowing.
Consciously walking toward my yearning.
Practicing not taking things or people for granted. I am blessed to bear witness to a friend who is in the dying process and marvel at her way of being through all of this. It reminds me to slow down and be grateful. The ability to participate fully in daily life is not a given.
Experimenting. Do something, try something, hold it more lightly. Even micro-adjustments can yield surprising things.
Keep my eye on joy.
There is no “right way” to do the turning of the year…
How does this year feel to you? What are you doing to mark the milestone and set the path ahead?
In yoga I heard “We can learn to accept even what we do not approve.” I thought that was so powerful.
I'm still laughing. Wonderfully truthful. For those of us who are not Type A goal freaks, we listen in awe and disbelief.