What If New Year Resolutions Are Not As Hyped As You Thought They Were?

I realise that resolutions aren’t as overrated as they appear. May be I looked at it all wrong. What if the resolutions are a way of self love and care?

Another year, another decade started just a few days back. And that threw up the usual discussions on new-year resolutions once again.

‘My new year resolution is not to make any.’

Or more recently, ‘resolutions are like whatsapp forwards, recycled without even reading properly.’

These are some of the things we say to each other when we speak of New Year resolutions.

Why take the efforts?

End of the year also sees updates and compilations of the events of gone by. I remember, watching chitrahaar round ups as a child at midnight on Doordarshan. (I hope there are at least a few among us who have walked the earth long enough to understand this part!) It always made me wonder why people took the efforts to compile all the stuff. After all, how did it matter?

‘It’s just a date, not like anything changes the next morning,’ is something many of us would have felt at some point in time.

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I focussed on staying warm

Well, this year I definitely didn’t make any resolutions, mainly because I was simply too cold with the almost freezing temperatures. Not even to try and run fewer electrical appliances to conserve the electricity bill such was the desperation to be warm. And the year end lists were obscured by the temperature recordings and predictions (I did save some relating to books though)

Slowly, the chill begins to abate and I get used to writing a changed date. It is only now, that I, like many of us, reflect on how time has flown by. I wonder if I should set any goals for myself and I begin to put my thoughts into words.

Maybe… it’s not so bad?

As I start writing, I find my thoughts going back to the year and I am doing my own chronicling of the good, the bad, the happy and the sad of the year. I also find myself thinking of the hopes and disappointments that the last year brought. It is then that I realise that this practice isn’t as over rated as it appears. And I begin to wonder if the year-end updates and resolutions are any different from the self care and self love that all of us need but sometimes forget about.

Our New Year resolutions are not just wishes. When we make a New Year resolution, we need to be in touch with ourselves. At the same time, we are aware of something in our lives that we need to change, however small it may be. We are also committed to working towards these, and have faith in ourselves to make a change.

They allow us to fail when we don’t keep them and show us the strength in trying again and again. By making a resolution we weren’t able to follow through on last year, we are forgiving ourselves for not doing so. We are not punishing ourselves for our mistakes, we are simply giving ourselves the space to try again without grudging ourselves for our failures.

What if it’s a gift?

The year round ups bring us closer to ourselves and are symbolic of life. But only if we remember what happened and try to organise our thoughts, will we able to move forwards.  They remind us that life is a mixed bag, with various emotions jostling for space, and that we have the power to choose which ones to feed.

Gratitude for the good and learning from the negatives allows us to renew ourselves. It gives us the gift of moving on and finding the energy to renew ourselves.

If not on the first of the year, on any day you choose to, give yourself that gift. Here is to the New Year, new decade and new beginnings, whenever you are ready for them!

Picture credits: Pixabay

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