Happy New Year!

‘New Year, New Me’ – how many times have we all heard that before? In some ways I think it can be useful to take time to reflect upon how things have been going, and New Years provides a good opportunity for many people to do this. It can also be difficult if your year hasn’t gone quite so well. New Years Resolutions are funny things; everybody suddenly picks this one day to make huge, sometimes unsustainable life changes, then feel terrible about themselves when they’ve given up by February.

It’s so much pressure to put yourself under. If you want to make changes to your life, make them! Don’t wait for some arbitrary date that society tells you is the right time to evaluate your life. We are all constantly changing as people, it’s inconceivable that everybody is suddenly in a place to make changes to their lifestyles in unison.

I am guilty of doing this though – last year I resolved to save more money and to spend more on experiences and less on material things. I definitely saved more, and most of what I spent was on travel so I did stick to it, although not as well as I’d have liked to! I aim to try and carry this motto on into this year though. I’ve also been toying with idea of vegetarianism for a few months now and I’ve actually cut my meat consumption down to virtually nothing already. I’m reluctant to give myself the title though for the very reasons I’ve already said; that if I do slip up and end up eating meat or meat products over the next 12 months, I don’t want to feel like a failure or a fraud.

A few years ago though, I made a wonderful resolution. I got a jar and planned to write down every time something happened to me over the next year that made me happy, and managed to stick to it religiously. It wasn’t a public shedding of a bad habit or announcing a huge lifestyle change, it was just a little activity for me and me only to do. I used a different colour for each month and wrote the date on the back, then when I opened them all a year later I had a chronology of everything nice that happened to me over the previous 12 months. I didn’t end up doing it the following year, I’m not really sure why because I loved opening them all up at the end of the year! It also made me take note of all the lovely things that were happening to me and around me.

I was also given a 5 year journal for Christmas which I’ve wanted for a long time, which is another great way to document life – both the good and the bad parts.

So this year, I’m not going to declare any big changes that will make me feel disappointed in myself in a few weeks.

I’m just going to take each day as it comes, open my eyes again to all the wonderful things in my life, write them in my book and pop them in my jar.

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