Have you thought about your new years resolutions yet? Exercise more, stop smoking, have more quality time with the kids, loose 10 pounds, find a job you really like, be nicer to your ex?
There’s is always lots to choose from.
Now before you go wild on setting yourself all sorts of tasks you might already in the second week of January forget about again, there’s 3 little tips I want to give you.
Tip Number 1: Be Kind to thy Self.
This means do not stretch yourself any further than feels good. You might actually need to loose 20 pounds, but if you loose 10 or even 5, or yes even 1, be proud of yourself. The second pound will then follow by itself as feeling good about who you are is the number one rule to changing habits that do not serve you.
Tip Number 2: To Inhale, Exhale first. The 9 of Challenges of the Nan Yar Who Am I personal development card says:
To inhale, exhale first,
To renew let go of the old,
To grow stop resisting.
This is a big challenge as we tend to be faithful to old shoes, fondly remembering how far they brought us. Remember though, a new pair might give you wings.
The number 9 in this card symbolizes the added value, the things we are able and in fact only able to create ourselves, as the numbers 9 represents the personal talents we use in harmony with life.
So here’s Tip Number 3: Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go,
That is easier said than done you might say. ‘I have lots of responsibilities in my life I need to tend to; I cannot be expected to simply let them go…’
True; but you know how, when you’re asked by your dietician to write down what you eat on a daily basis, your eyes tend to pop when at the end of the day the calories are counted/; how you always thought you were doing much better than that.
Well…same goes for the amount of responsibilities we think we need to take on on a daily basis.
Don’t know about you, but I tend to take the world on my shoulders, getting grumpy over things varying from dog poo on the pavement in front of my door to Donald Trump’s head appearing on television.
Problem is though that investing energy and getting upset on things I cannot change, will only deplete my energies.
What I can do though is take a bucket of water and flush the poo into the sewer system and when I see Trump switch off the television and yes…let it go….for that is how anger gets to us. It enjoys when I get upset, when it occupies my mind, when it gets me angry; it feeds on me when I do.
So, my advise Let it Go, let it Go let it Go,
I use a little trick when I find myself moping and loop thinking about things that bother me.
I indeed take a full deep breath in and an even longer full breath out and when that doesn’t do the trick I sing to myself, on a very appropriate melody for the holiday season, but rather than “let it snow let it snow let snow, I make it,
Let it go let go let it go
Merry Christmas Everybody and all the best for 2016
Ingrid Schippers
15-12-2015
This blog was recorded as weekly end-note of the Dutchbuzz edition of December 15, the radio program for internationals, every Tuesday on The Hague FM from 10 to 11 pm.
All programs are archived at Dutchbuzz.nl.
