January the first always marks that time in the year where we think about our resolutions and the fresh start that the new year encourages. We see it all over social media businesses advertising their products with the slogan “New Year New Me”, but does it need to be a new me? Do I need to start the new year with a new version of myself because that is what has become the social norm? Why do I need a new image of myself, or can it be New Year SAME ME?
In this modern era where we are surrounded by social media bombarding us with offers and discounts to entice us to join and start the new year all with the same tagline “New Year New Me”. It is something that I used to fall for every year. I’d always wake up on January the first with this attitude that this was going to be my year and that I was going to have this big image of a new version of myself, but I have since come to realise that this can actually be quite detrimental to our mental health. Why should we change the image of ourselves just because it is now the social norm? Why should we be the ones to change just because someone doesn’t like the way we are. Instead, why can’t we simply have a new year with an enhanced version of ourselves, being the best true version we can be. Staying true to who we really are. This whole concept of changing who we are comes back to the idea that we need to fit into what society has deemed as the norm, and if we don’t fit into one of the norms then we need to change, but why is this? Why should we change who we are just because it’s not “normal”?
This year I decided that enough was enough. I wasn’t going to follow what was classed as “normal” and set myself some resolutions to make a new version of myself. After speaking with my dear friend Laura from Edinburgh Life with Kids, I decided to set myself 22 intentions for the year ahead. These intentions have been chosen to not create a new image of myself, but to help me enhance myself and allow me to be the best version of myself. Now, despite writing these intentions 2022 hasn’t started quite as planned as I had hoped. As I write this I am currently on day eight of seventeen days of isolation, although I am not letting this stop me from starting on my intentions. One of the intentions I have set myself is to read more. Now you might think that reading more is an easy intention to fulfil, however for me it’s not simply about reading more, it’s about making more time for myself and making time to simply stop. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a busy life at times, and setting this as an intention is helping me to encourage myself to slow down and rest.
Another intention that I have set myself, that I would say is probably the most important intention I have set, is to simply Be More ME. Be true to myself. By this I mean simply doing things that make me happy and doing things for myself. We are surrounded by many images in the media of what is the ideal body and how to change the way we look to enhance yourself, but in reality the only way to enhance the true version of yourself is to simply listen to our body and do things for no one else but ourselves. So this new year, instead of setting yourself new years resolutions, set yourself some intentions. Set yourself some goals that you wish to achieve with the intention of keeping your eyes on the prize. By setting yourself some intentions you give yourself a chance to truly focus on yourself and be true to who you really are.
"Intention is the core of all conscious life. Conscious intention colours and moves everything." - Hsing Yun