An Alternative Resolution

Another year has come and gone.  If you’re like me, your social media feed and your e-mail inbox are inundated with the pressure to become someone else.  There’s just this constant push to make us believe that who we are is not quitewho we are supposed to be.  So much emphasis is put on signing up for a new gym, subscribing to a new diet plan, resolving to be a different person.  “Make a New Year’s Resolution”, “What are your goals in the New Year?” And while these are not necessarily bad things, they do nothing to honor the person we actually are, the things we have gone through and found a way to the other side of, the healing we have done. 

Maybe we don’t always have to erase ourselves at the end of every year.  There have been times in my life where I have definitely wanted to start from scratch. Times where I wanted to erase the year a get a do-over. But as the years pass on, I can reflect back on those difficult years with a much kinder perspective and admiration of the strength that was required of me to venture to the other side of them.  I gained things I would never trade now.  The tough times played a role in building the person I am today just as much, if not more, than the good times. 

So this time of year, when we are all being pressured to resolve to be a different person than who we are: a more evolved version, a skinnier version, a healthier version, a more palatable version, I encourage you to get still.  Take a moment to shut out all the outside noise and sit only with yourself.  Long enough to hear your own inner voice.  What has she gone through this year? What has she made it to the other side of? What strength, courage, or peace has she gained? And what does she want?  It doesn’t have to be January 1st to choose her. The answers are not outside of you.  No one else holds these answers for you.  And if you get quiet enough, you’ll find you already have all the answers you’ll ever need. It doesn’t have to be January 1st to choose her.