Renewal, And Approaching With A Fresh Perspective

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Happy New Year, and new decade! I know it’s common to start the new year off with resolutions, but I’m not a huge resolutions person - they tend to feel like all or nothing goals that are often either too broad (i.e. eat healthier, be more active) or massive leaps without much planning behind them that lose their luster when we get into the day to day or week to week or month to month reality of them. 

I decided that instead of resolutions, my theme for the month is going to be Renewal and Approaching With a Fresh Perspective. I opted for this two-part theme because I feel that often in order for renewal to take place, we need to change the way we’re approaching or looking at the situation, or ourselves. Other times, it’s the renewal itself that leads to the change in perspective. Perhaps it’s simply that taking the steps to renew your commitment to something (or someone) lets us pause and reflect and refresh the way we’re looking at the situation or the activity or whatever it is. 

Renewal can take place in virtually any aspect of our lives both on and off the mat, and I’ll delve into a few of these in subsequent weeks. Regardless of the specific situation, though, I think that renewal involves a few key aspects.

  • Commitment, or re-commitment, to the situation, the person, the activity, or to ourselves. Depending on what we’re renewing, this may be followed up by a plan or a call to action to ourselves, or something else, but the first is commitment that we intend to stick to. 

  • Openness - Often, we get stuck in patterns and we can’t seem to get out. When we’re able to be open, to allow the possibility of a different way of doing or looking or seeing or feeling something, it gives us that extra nudge we might need to recommit. 

  • Patience, and gentleness with ourselves. Often, the new year is full of jump starts and big actions, and it’s not that these aren’t helpful - they can be. But we’re human, and we tend to have better days and tougher days. Truly renewing and re-approaching a commitment or a situation is more of a long game, and it may well look like tiny actions every day or week or however often, with some tougher days in between. We need to offer ourselves time and patience, and allow the fact that we’re human, and sometimes might feel like an internal battle with ourselves, while other days it feels inspired and easy.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts on renewal and fresh perspectives with you over the coming weeks, and I’d love to hear what you’re working on renewing, and re-approaching. Happy 2020!