I’m Setting Self- Care Intentions NOT Resolutions This January

Goals, Resolutions, New Year New You… they are all fine messages in their own right, but can also inspire a sense of fear, overwhelm, self-doubt and other slightly unhelpful feelings. Well, they certainly do for me anyway.

January, we know is THE time when society tells you to set these goals; and you know what if you are feeling that New Year high motivational energy, then my friends, you do you… set those goals. BUT if like most of us, you are still feeling a little bit sleepy and want to continue to hunker down for winter, that’s ok. It’s not necessary to set any goals now… or even ever if you don’t want to.

I’ve never been a fan of New Years resolutions, I think they encourage you to come up with an idea to change dramatically in the space of a very short period of time – a year can feel long, but it’s also short too.

What do I mean by this is? Well let’s take this example - if you have never run before (like me) and decide to run the London Marathon in April (not like me), AND you want to complete it in 3 hours, you are probably setting yourself up for a failure. It takes a loooong time to get to this level, trust me, I’ve been watching Matt do it for ages now! Nobody needs this level of failure in their life right!, So, resolutions are not my favourite.

Instead, I love to set myself self-care intentions. They are a lot freer flowing and instead focus on something I already love, want to do more of, or a feeling/state of mind I’m trying to cultivate. They focus on self- care, allowing myself the time and excuse to prioritise and nourish me.

Reading back over my self-care intentions I set myself for last year- for once I’ve managed to stick to them.

I found that setting a self-care intention took the pressure off and they came a lot more naturally. So, this year I’m doing the same (and encouraging you guys to do it too).

Here is what they are looking like so far…remembering that the whole point of this is to flow, so what I have here now, may not be what I need it to be later in the year. AND that’s ok!  

1.        Living in alignment with my energetic flow- really tuning into my energy and allowing it to guide my activities & schedule. Remembering that it’s also ok to change my mind.

2.        Sticking to my established boundaries, they are there for a reason and that’s ok.

3.        Spend more time with the people who count

4.        Continuing to prioritise all the things that nourish and bring me joy– pole fitness, learning, reading, dancing etc

Now you can see there are a real mix of energetic “fluffy” intentions there and more tangible intentions. So, what can I do to make sure I am prioritising me this year and sticking to them.

For the tangible intentions it’s a lot simpler. I schedule them into my diary. It might feel a bit like overkill to schedule this stuff in, but we schedule in work commitments, school commitments, family commitments- why can’t we schedule in the commitments to ourselves too? I started doing this a couple of years ago and it was a GAME CHANGER.

Give it a go, I promise you won’t regret it.

For the more “fluffy” intentions – it is a lot more challenging. This is where developing self-awareness and really connecting to your intuition makes a difference. If you are able to connect with your body then your body begins to talk to you.

I had a situation over Christmas where somebody pushed up against my boundaries, and I caved. I let them push me and it made me feel icky, panicked and I actually ended up quite unwell from it. That was my body telling me that I’d compromised my boundary to suit somebody else, not myself. Now, next time that sort of situation arises again I can take a pause before responding. I can actually think about what I want and with kindness say no. I’m not going to get it every time and this is going to be a continuous journey for me – especially for someone who hates disappointing people. BUT I’m committed because it’s the right thing for me.

So – that’s that friends. Setting the year up how I want, not how anybody else does.

Which takes me to my main message…. DO YOU!! If you want a goal, great, if you don’t, great. This is your life, live it how you want …. But remember

It’s ok to prioritise your own self -care

Love, Tash xx