What’s So New About the New Year?
Jan 01, 2013 07:46PM ● By Sylvia Haskvitz
Yes, It’s time for those new years resolutions—lose weight, exercise, shed the pounds you gained over the holidays, join a health club—you may be telling yourself to toughen up, find the will power and just say no to those things that aren’t good for you. Does it seem a bit like the movie, Groundhog Day, making the same resolutions year after year, yet not much has changed? What blocks us or keeps us from creating a different outcome regarding our body, our health and exercise? How do we begin anew and hit the mark?
In Judaism, during the Jewish New Year, we look at our regrets— not as a way to punish or beat ourselves, up, but rather as a way to learn from what didn’t work and to turn (tshuvah) to our best and highest selves. This may be a time to determine how to turn to our best and highest selves in this year of 2013.
It may have to do with cleaning up any words or actions to be more in alignment with your values. You may want to revisit choices you made regarding your body, food and exercise. Notice what needs attention in your life, not as a way to criticize, but to focus on what support you would like to gain the clarity that would help you move forward in a way you would like.
Sometimes the frustration we have is that we want someone else to make changes, because it is difficult to watch people making choices that are not supporting health and well-being. In May, when my niece graduated from high school, one of her classmates spoke, and what touched me was this. “You can’t want for someone else, you can only support them when they want for themselves.” Another way to look at this is what you want to be changed in another person may best be changed within yourself. If you focus first on yourself and make the changes you would like, you may just inspire others to do the same.
Sylvia Haskvitz, MA, RD, is a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication.