Hello and welcome to 2023!
I might have mentioned before Christmas that I don’t buy in to the “New Year, New You” malarkey anymore (unless it’s your thing, which is absolutely fine). Many people are exhausted from trying to be more and do better, and the best they might manage right now is to get up and, where they can, show up.
Having said that, there is something about starting a new chapter that creates a ‘Fresh Start Effect’ (that’s an actual thing by the way). If you’ve ever bought a new notebook you’ll know exactly what I mean – that paradoxically tense moment of opening the cover, combined with the gloriousness of those fresh pages in front of you.
It can sometimes take the form of intentions (some might call them resolutions), others might have a word of the year. Either way, it can feel healthy and helpful to have a sense of direction at least, as I often say, to know where you’re going especially if you don’t want to stay where you are. But where do you go from here?
This might help:
This week, maybe set the intention to Face the Direction. Sometimes half the challenge is getting started – as the saying goes, a journey begins with a single step. But we worry about making the “wrong” choices, so end up procrastinating, not realising that making no decision is a decision in itself. We could also argue that there are really no ‘bad’ choices if we did the best we could with what we knew at the time. Hindsight isn’t always a wonderful thing, but in fact a cruel reality at times. So essentially, what I’m saying is: start where you are and walk forward when you can.
If you tend to delay, you might want to think about the role procrastination plays in your life. Think about why you get in your own way at times, and what life would be like if you stopped that. If you want to, close your eyes for a moment and think about the life you would live if you were able to make any choices you wanted and where you’d be. Allow yourself to daydream, even if you can’t act on it just yet.
On that note, you might find in all your deliberations that now is not the “right” time, and that’s a reasonable reason to pause. But even so, as often as you can, put your face towards the sunshine and let the shadows fall behind you. If that’s the only direction you face, you’ll rarely be disappointed.
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You might also like: my book Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal, out now.
© Delphi Ellis 2022
Monday Mojo™ 