As the New Year approaches, it can be tempting to make grand plans for what you want to be, do and accomplish in the year to come.
If you’ve been setting resolutions for a while, you’ve likely had the experience of letting your habits lapse, or even forgetting your commitments once the year got into full swing.
This year, we’re taking a page out of Chandresh Bhardwaj’s book (she’s the author of Break the Norms trading resolutions for a new year’s intention.
Bhardwaj suggests that our minds have a hard time staying in the present, so the resolutions we make are often related to conditioning from the past, or a worry about the future.
The place you’ll have the most luck sticking to any new habit is in the present moment. Here are 4 tips from Bhardwaj to help you create an intention for the new year that will help you experience the joy of living in the moment.
- Realize that resolutions are limiting. Bhardwaj suggests “when you set a resolution, you declare, ‘I am only going to think about this defined notion in my mind.’” Which leave little room for expansion or revision of your resolution as life in the new year begins to take shape. The resolution also only exists in your mind, instead of in the physical world. To ground yourself in something new, consider making it more concrete.
- Set intentions instead of resolutions. An intention or sankalpa (in Sanskrit) is an intention generated for your soul’s growth. A helpful intention has the power to raise your awareness and act as a guide for your actions at any moment. The idea here is that when you set an intention, you don’t have to worry about your actions because knowing (and acting according to) your intention will always guide your highest actions.
- Embrace the present moment. The human condition is always changing. If you’re too busy to tune in and connect with how you are right now in this moment, you’ll miss the opportunity to witness yourself. Instead of chasing the unknown future, make a point each day to relax, take in what’s around you and enjoy being exactly where you are right now.
- Release the outcome. Your mind will want to fast forward and predict what the future holds. This can create anxiety and will take you out of the present moment. How can you enjoy your life as it is if you don’t stop to take it in right now? What’s to say that you’ll stop to take in the future moment you’re dreaming about when it is happening? When you set your intention with full faith that it will come to fruition, the idea is that you’ll let go of trying to predict when and how it will come to be. Let tomorrow take its own course, enjoy being here and now as you take the actions that will bring your desired future to you.
Meditation for Unconditional Love
The book Break the Norms includes several meditation techniques. This one from the book will guide you in discovering unconditional love, to support your intentions.
- On a sheet of paper, write down one intention. It should be something practical that’s able to be accomplished in two to three months.
- Keep the intention in your altar or somewhere special in your home that you’ll see regularly.
- On a regular basis, sit in silence. Relax. Be mindful of your breathing.
- Bring your awareness to your heart and envision that you’re planting the intention that you have created.
- Express to the divine that this intention will manifest itself in a specific amount of time (you can choose what’s best here according to the nature of your intention.)
- Now, release the intention in your mind, giving it up to the Universe with complete faith of it coming into being.
Will you set an intention as opposed to a resolution for the new year? What will it be? Join the conversation with us on Instagram @movecollective.co.