No More New Year’s Resolutions!

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What is the most common question you get asked going into a new year? For most people, it’s usually along the lines of “What are your New Year’s resolutions?”. It’s a common tradition passed on through the years that people use the “new year” as a starting point for their new goals and lifestyle practices. Why wait until New Year when you can start now?

 

If you put your goals off until the new year, you have to ask yourself how much of a priority they were for you in the first place? Are you using the holidays as an excuse to binge and fall further behind on your goal before you face it head-on in January?

 

Let’s say you make a set of resolutions going into the next year. You are really consistent and on top of all of your goals for a month or maybe even more! Inevitably, life gets in the way and excuses start coming up and you begin to lose the motivation you once had to stay consistent with your resolutions. Then, eventually, there are too many “reasons” as to why your goals are not your priority anymore, and pretty soon you are no longer progressing on these goals at all.

 

But, wait! At this point, it’s almost January again! You can just start your resolutions again next year! This is going to be the year you actually accomplish your goals!

 

And again, the cycle starts right back over.

 

If this cycle sounds familiar to you, I challenge you to ask yourself, “Why am I waiting to start my goals?”

 

Whatever it is that you may want to introduce in your life, it can always be started now. Do you want to start exercising more? Join the gym today. If you are already paying for it, why wouldn’t you go? Do you want to eat healthier? Throw out the junk food! Out of sight, out of mind. With little to no junk food in the house, you will have to force yourself to be creative and make healthier meals using the more nutritious items you might already have or that you purchase to help yourself accomplish your goal!

 

It’s important to remember that baby steps are better than no steps at all. Sometimes life really does get in the way, but it rarely ever completely prevents you from doing what you want to do. Even when things seem to be difficult and you start to lose motivation, try and take a step back and decide how you can accomplish this goal now!

 

For example, maybe you were going to the gym 5 days a week for 30 minutes each day. Something happens and now you are unable to commit to going as frequently as you were before.

 

Instead of using this as an excuse to just stop, take a step back and ask yourself how much you can reasonably commit to right now. Can you find 2 days in the week that you can spare 30 minutes to devote to exercising? Maybe even 3? Working out 2-3 days isn’t as often as 5, but it’s definitely better than 0. Just by setting aside this 1 hour out of your whole week, you just saved yourself from potentially giving up on your goal completely.

 

In addition to this, it is also important to set reasonable goals in the first place. If you try and set resolutions that you know you are not able to commit to 100%, you are setting yourself up to fail and who would want to do that? Instead of telling yourself, you are going to lose 100 pounds this year, knowing you are not the type of person who has hours and hours to commit to the gym each week, start smaller by trying to lose 20 pounds in 6 months. If you find that you really are consistent and on track, then think about raising it to 30 or 35 pounds in that 6-month time frame.

 

Not only will this be healthier for your body, but it will also be healthier for your mind. Pacing yourself and setting realistic standards for yourself can drastically change your attitude when going into a goal! Plus, an added benefit is that if you are able to easily crush each smaller goal, it won’t feel like it was such a struggle to get to the bigger one! We get more out of life when we keep the commitments we make to ourselves.

 

As Hillel, the Elder once said, “If not now, when?” I challenge you to start those New Year’s Resolutions today.

 

Healing From Loss

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I find myself in grief again, with the knowing that this will not be the last time I experience loss.  I am also reminded that loss is not just the loss of someone, although that loss may well be the most impactful; it can also be the loss of love, of respect, of connection, understanding, adoration, community, and so on.  With each and any loss there is a process we may find ourselves immersed in.  It may move in different stages, or not.  It may last awhile, or not.  It may ebb and flow, or not.  But one thing I have found with all of the losses that have arrived in my life, is that they have always come with some form of pain.

I have been in the presence of end of life transition many times in my life.  Present at the very moment that the life force energy of an individual, as well as an animal, has left for good.  I have seen the last breath taken, witnessing the exact moment that a living being has left their respective physical form.  I have seen that process be a great struggle, and I have witnessed it as a great gift, and the in between.  I have witnessed this shift, if you will, be comforted by those holding space for the one transitioning, and comfort being provided by those leaving to those who will be left behind.  It is an organic process that has many ways of unfolding and expressing itself.  In my humble experience, there is no one way for this all to come about.

And in this understanding I have equally understood that there is no one way to feel the pain of this either.  For it may come firstly, even before the actually loss has occurred, as a soft knowing of what is to come.  And in that first soft knowing, that may not actually be consciously known, it may then continue as a gentle feeling of tenderness, vulnerability, perhaps growing into an ache, soreness around the heart, a sinking in the gut, a heaviness of the mind.  Then the moment arrives when the actual loss is realized and the breath, feeling as if it has been sucked from your lungs, leaves you with the feeling that you can barely breathe.  Your neck becomes stiff, your back pulls, barely able to hold itself up, your shoulders experience a crushing feeling unable to support the heavy weight of your grief.  It is a complete and utter full body and mind experience.  And then it is over.  They have gone, or the “it” situation has gone, the moment of losing whatever it was you lost has left forever, and you are now left with how to heal.

How to heal; do we even know where to begin?  Do we really understand how to allow ourselves permission to begin the process of knowing what we so desperately need to heal?  Do we honor the Body, Mind connection?  What will we do in this moment?  What have we done for moments like this?  What will we do now?

For me, I will feed myself good food.  I will give my body the care it needs.  I will give my mind the comfort and tenderness it desires.  I will be authentically bold and courageous in doing all of these things.  And in doing so, may I be so humble as to hope, this “doing” will inspire others to do the same.

Chiropractic care helps our body function in the way it is meant to.  It assists in restoring the optimal body mind connection that we are meant to experience for a life well lived.  A life that is capable of supporting all that arises, however challenging.  Getting adjusted will be part of my healing process.  May it be part of yours, if you so find yourself in need of healing, if you so find yourself in a body that has stored grief which may have manifested in pain.  Be well.