I’m ditching New Year’s resolutions!
Posted on 29th December 2023 at 05:35
I didn’t think I was going to get another blog out in 2023. I intended to do so many a time over the past few months, yet a half written page left incomplete as I prioritised other commitments.
In fairness, I’ve still been writing; lots! It has been a busy time, today I completed and submitted my first book for publication which will be released in February 2024, so I think I can cut myself a little slack! It’s something we could all be doing a little more often if we wanted to. Cutting ourself some slack - a little less pressure on ourselves, less of this keeping up business! It’s extremely exhausting, if we allow!
Last night I couldn’t sleep. I laid there and after sometime I stopped fighting it and sat up, I started writing which I love to do. Whilst reflecting on this I decide to share with you as part of this very blog, a slightly different style but here it is.
It got me again, and I had every intention of not losing myself in it. Why do we get sucked in to this Christmas madness? What was once a memory of joy, laughter and games; wrapping paper everywhere, now seems to be a tick box system of so much. A list impossible for anyone to actually complete without feeling depletion of some kind! Exhaustion. I’m not doing it next year! A firm promise to myself. I have slowed down a lot too, lazy days and saying no, but there have been some moments where I’ve thought - what am I doing? My favourite find this year and incredibly lazy but bloody wonderful was to not wrap a single gift, instead I brought gift bags, no cutting endless shapes of paper, no sellotape required and this gave me so much time back. Instead with the hours saved I enjoyed a movie and a mince pie, rather than the all too familiar 3am finish before it all begins again.
The gift of time and love is all I’ve ever really wanted and this comes without bows and excessive dinners. It felt compulsory for time to be filled with so many people you may not even want to see. Yet the ones you wish to snuggle up with you have no real time with at all, lost in the chaos.
After my disrupted night, time spent unravelling in my journal, I managed to drift back off to sleep and later in the morning when I woke again, after a marginal amount of sleep, I read this gorgeous quote by Sharon Salzburg and it put it all into perspective for me.
‘How amazing that we can even be amazed!’
Yes, how amazing indeed and we don’t even acknowledge half of the wonder; the joy. We let the true amazement get bogged down with all this surface stuff. (aware I’m now venting a little, and possibly sounding like scrooge; bear with me). To simply be amazed! Wow what does that feel like? To get pure enjoyment out of time spent perfectly just the way you want it, no need for bells and whistles. Just pure moments of love that is amazing! ‘How amazing that we can even be amazed’!
As we tiptoe through the last moments of 2023, ask yourself what does 2024 look like for you?
Not for everyone else, but for you. Be amazed, feel love, let go of all the expectations and simply live your life how you want to. It goes by so quickly, spend your moments doing those things where the time does fly by simply because you are present and truly amazed at the meaningful moments of life. Spend your time with those you love, those who lift you up and don’t regret a single thing.
As I approach 2024, I’m ditching New Year’s resolutions and instead just being aware of what I’m not taking forward and leaving it there.
May your 2024 connect with who you truly are, how amazing it is to be you!
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