One New Year Resolution To Embrace For Health And Happiness

Do you ever berate yourself? I bet you do! Although we may doubt ourselves from time to time, it never ceases to amaze me how many people could gain a degree in the art of berating themselves. Thinking they aren’t good enough to smart enough. In the corporate world, it even has a title, the ‘Imposter Syndrome.’

Last week, it caught my attention again. This time it was while I was browsing the papers during a short break in Brisbane. The article that jumped off the page was entitled ‘Women crippled by self-judgment.’

• The article mentioned that the UK study found the average woman put herself down at least eight times each day. The most common topics prevalent were criticism about appearance and weight.
• Being cynical about one’s earnings, creativity, and organisational skills as well as deflecting compliments also made the list.
• One in seven women criticised themselves frequently, and more concerning was that many women weren’t even aware they were thinking such damaging thoughts. (Men do too, but not as much as women). Being hard on ourselves only creates more of the same.
• The article revealed how social media has helped drive a widespread increase in self-judgment. While great for keeping connected digitally, Social Media tends to focus on only one perspective of people’s lives at a time. It’s easy to read about the successes, the extraordinary stories of weight loss, happy wedding photos and smiling social gatherings.
• Just like watching highly polished Olympians winning gold medals we see the ‘glory’ but not the story.
• Behind the glory are the hours of relentless training, the doubts, failed attempts, injuries, setbacks and day to day mundane routines that make up the success. We tend to overlook these.

How many hours do you waste on Social Media?

With the countless hour’s people spend on Social Media, wouldn’t it be great if we could be aware of the bigger picture? Everything that makes up the glory? It might lead to a new revolution where people stop criticising or judging themselves. Imagine a world where everyone was kinder to themselves, forgiving and more respectful? While it is a good thing to set ourselves standards and assess our performances we must keep one eye firmly on our path. Furthermore, you are a human being and not intended to be a human perfect. Humans make mistakes and this is often how we grow and learn. While we often have compassion and empathy for others, too often people forget this when it comes to themselves. Moreover, you supposed to enjoy the journey as well as desiring the destination.focusing on our destination, our desires, and goals.

What is your One New Year Resolution you never keep?

You may have read that in some research, around 92% of New Year Resolutions fail? To ensure you set yourself up for success, keep it simple and set this one New Year Resolution or goal this year, which is:-

Pledge to be kinder, gentler and more respectful to yourself.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But can you do it? When you do, I guarantee you will achieve way more, and with far more ease and grace than you may have done this year with your lofty goals, deadlines, strict regimes and possibly failed dreams? Giving up when you had a failed attempt instead of being kind on yourself and getting back on the path to continue again.

What does setting this One New Year Resolution mean?

 It means you:-

• Acknowledge your successes on a daily basis
• Appreciate your awesomeness
• Forgive yourself when you fail, forget something or run out of time to complete everything on your never-ending ‘to do list’
• Schedule time in for yourself exclusively
• Put this at the very top of your to-do list
• Have a not to do list
• Say no more to others
• Focus on all the things you are grateful for
• Think kind and pleasant thoughts (especially about yourself)
• Say positive and empowering things to yourself every day
• Be helpful to others

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt

I guarantee this one New Year Resolution will be the best foundation that you can set for yourself in 2018 and for future years. Once you make this a habit, your entire life will shift as your perspective shifts. In the words of the late Dr. Wayne Dyer, ‘

When you change the way you see things, the things you see change.

Here are five good reasons, backed by science

1. Your words have immense power. In one landmark study, a group of people was asked to enter a room. Each person was given a card with a few words written on it. The researchers asked the team to create sentences using these words before leaving the room. Unknown to the people in the group, the words had been grouped around the topic of aging, and included words like ‘arthritis,’ ‘walking stick,’ ‘senior citizen,’ ‘pension.’ Incredibly, the group given the words related to aging walked out slower than they walked in. Read full article here

2. Your body is about 60 – 70% water, and your words impact the water in your body. Dr Masaru Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has was exposed to loving word shows brilliant, complex, and colourful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water exposed to negative thoughts, form incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colours. Read about the fascinating work by Masaru Emoto on Intention and Water Molecules here

3. Tracking back even further to a biblical proverb  ‘As you sow so shall you reap,’ what results do you think you will get by berating yourself? Your thoughts feed your feelings and your feelings feed your thoughts which influence your behaviours and outcomes. Do you want your body to contain dirty or clean water? The chemicals in the brain and body influence each other. Positive thoughts create positive chemicals, and negative thoughts create negative chemicals. What sort of chemicals are you creating from your habitual words and the stories you tell yourself?

One New Year Resolution to Embrace

4. Being kind includes forgiving yourself. In one Stanford University experiment, people who learned and practised forgiveness reported fewer backaches, headaches, muscle pains, stomach upsets and other common physical signs of stress compared to a control group. They also said higher levels of optimism, self-confidence, and hope. Imagine a life with less stress! Your thoughts influence your health, and I think everyone wants to be healthier, not sicker? Check out this article on the importance of forgiveness.

5. We are all energy beings, and as your energy expands beyond your physical self, it will influence others. By being kind to yourself, you are helping others by shaping their attitude with your positivity. Furthermore, there is a world of hurt happening out there. Make it your mission to radiate love and kindness. More importantly, this requires you to treat yourself with kindness and respect first. Moreover, remember, when you are on Social Media you only get a one-dimensional view of other people’s lives. There is a story that makes up the glory. One that includes hard work, challenges, struggles, repetitive practices and setbacks.

In summary, the one New Year Resolution is:-

Resolve to be kinder to yourself

Cut yourself some slack, be kind and embrace this one New Year Resolution.