Sunday Snippet: Meaningful Resolutions for Meaningful Growth
Although we are only a few days into the new year, past experience would suggest that many New Year’s resolutions are already being challenged and perhaps even abandoned altogether. The new year is commonly seen as a time to reinvent one’s image to become a ‘new you’! But often this striving for a new image lacks a personal and sincere sense of meaning making it more and more difficult to cling to as a personal goal. Perhaps it would be better to see a ‘better you’ and seek ways to improve on what is probably already a pretty good person!
A post that has been around for a bit recently came across our radar suggesting some simple, yet meaningful resolutions to contemplate for the new year. In 12 Unique Life Resolutions to Consider (becomingminimalist.com, January, 2012) author, Joshua Becker offers up several simple, yet impactful self-improvements that will definitely help to create a ‘better you’. Here are a few of our favorites from Mr. Becker’s post:
Intentionally laugh everyday. Laughter releases stress, lowers blood pressure, and exercises muscles. More importantly, it changes our outlook on life and brings us joy and hope. It ought to be practiced everyday. Put it on your To-Do List. And give yourself permission to laugh each day.
Practice solitude. Find time alone in quiet on a regular basis. No books, no music, no outside voices. Just you alone with yourself. Your life will never, ever be the same.
Make gratitude a discipline. Thank someone or something each day, every day. Gratitude refocuses our attention away from what we don’t have and redirects it towards what we do. As a result, it naturally causes contentment and generosity to spring up in our lives.
Adopt a “Do it Now” mentality. The opposite of procrastination is to simply “do it now” instead. And seeing as how procrastination results in an unnecessary amount of stress in our lives, “doing it now” is an appropriate life habit for many of us to resolve. Repeat the mantra often. And then, just do it now – whatever “it” may be.
Eat more vegetables. Eating more vegetables is a better, simpler, and often times more measurable approach to your weight loss goal than simply deciding to eat less. Eating vegetables at each meal (or as snacks in-between them) naturally reduces the amount of unhealthy food that we put into our bodies. Additionally, it gives us more energy, more self-esteem, and more opportunity to fight off illness and disease.
Go to bed earlier. Changing just the first hour of your day changes the remaining 23. And the best way to change the first hour of your day is to get a good night’s sleep. So make a practice this year to move your bedtime up. You may just be surprised at how that small change will naturally benefit other areas of your life.
With this, it is our intent to wish you all a very fulfilling and meaningful new year. Thank you as always for reading and have a wonderful week!
