New Year, More You!

As the new year rolls in many of us reflect back on the previous year and set resolutions, intentions, or goals for the year ahead. But there is a hidden trap in this ritual. Research demonstrates that our brains have a negativity bias, a tendency to pay more attention to the bad instead of the good. And so the mind will start to chatter about all the things we need to change or improve about ourselves. We start to list our shortcomings and our failures of the past. We resolve to achieve more, do more, and become better people. We minimize our goodness, our strengths, our resiliency, and all the ways we’ve risen to meet life’s challenges and survived. We don’t remember that it’s part of the human experience to fail. And underneath all of this is the sneaky message that who we are isn’t already good enough.

The truth is that you are not a project that needs to be fixed. You are a human being walking in your unique magic alongside other human beings in all of their unique magic. We are messy and amazing. Sometimes we are caring and sometimes hurtful. Our bodies are all shapes and sizes. We fail and we succeed – often we’re somewhere in between.

I have this dream that all of the marketing messages this time of year that scream “New Year – New You” were replaced with “New Year – MORE You”. Then maybe our ritual would become quieting the self critical voice and reflecting instead on who we are when we feel our most authentic self. We would see our worth doesn’t come from our achievements, our body size, or how we better ourselves. Our value is just in being human.

My wish is that we can take whatever innate qualities we already possess, cultivate them, and amplify them out into the world. So cheers to the new year and you being more you and me being more me!

Warmest,

Kristin