Usually the start of a new year brings me no change in inspiration or motivation. I get excited about the experiences to come and go my way in the upcoming calendar year, but other than that I feel no drastic shift once the clock strikes 12:00 AM. All it's ever felt like was the next day.
However, 2016 feels different to me somehow. My New Year's Eve was like any other person's New Year's Eve: surrounded by good vibes, good people, cheering good drinks to the year gone by and hopeful for the next. I went to sleep feeling so full. The first day of my 2016 was one of the happiest days I can remember. You may think me silly to say this, but I believe the way you spend January 1st can absolutely set the tone for the way the rest of your year will go. I know I'm a big fat corn stalk, but I think when I look back on my life, 2016 is going to have been the year that separates the past and the future for me. I think this year is going to provide me with opportunity, with happiness, with fulfillment, and with growth. Yeah, this is going to be the year of growth. Like, real growth. Like, career growth, and self-love growth, and wisdom growth and street smarts growth. You know how when you think about yourself you think of this awesome passionate person who is great and hardworking and super deserving, and then you finish Making A Murderer on Netflix in a day and you're like wait actually I'm a shmuck? Well I think 2016 is the last of my shmuck days. I feel like who I've always thought I could be is going to start right now.
All that being said, that's not to say I don't think this year will be chock full of disappointment, challenges, and obstacles. Let's be real, we're 20 days into the year and I've already dealt with some shit. But I think this is the year of not dwelling. Of understanding and respecting the struggle, and choosing to keep my chin up, push forward and keep chasing the sun. This is the year of smiling through the mucky to get to a place that's...unmucky?
They say forming habits that stick takes about three months, so I've decided to begin 2016 challenging myself to live a better life. (You may call this a resolution, and to that I'd say, you're probably right, but ew, no.) I am challenging myself to live a healthier life, with yoga at the core of my day to day, but not beating myself up for eating pizza and donuts because A LIFE WITHOUT PIZZA AND DONUTS IS NOT A LIFE I WANT TO LIVE. I am challenging myself to be better at communication with my people on the east coast. If there's one thing I took from my long holiday vacation, it's how much I never realized I was lacking from not speaking to all my friends more often. I felt so whole every time I saw someone I loved, that I vow to try and keep a line of communication going with as many people as I possibly can.
And lastly, my favorite challenge for this year, is learning to be more supportive and positive. I want to live a life I'm proud of, and that means no hate. I challenge myself and I challenge all of you, if you find yourself talking poorly about someone, notice it, call it out, and put an end to it. Forgive others the way you forgive yourself. A yoga instructor of mine recently said that we judge ourselves based on our intentions, but we judge others based off of their actions. I challenge myself and all of you to judge intention, instead of action. Don't put any more hate into this world cause it doesn't need any more. Women, stop slamming other women, it's not cute. Accept one another.
HAVE A WONDERFUL 2016! And everyone. Please. Stop getting into political debates on Facebook.