New Year Resolutions? A Different Approach.....

At a time when social media is full of memes and posts about resolutions, self-improvement, and making changes.

New habits.
Fresh motivation.
A better version of yourself.

I'd like to offer you something less directive, less about you should, you could, you must...

As this year begins, I find myself drawn back to a painting I bought a few years ago from a local artist. It’s called Quiet Contemplation. For me, it speaks of stillness, calm, and the quiet space to simply stand and stare.

Reproduced with the kind permission of the artist Buffy Karen Katsu Kei

As you look at the painting, you might notice what your eye is drawn to first. A space, a shape, a feeling. Or you might simply notice how it makes you feel. There’s no right or wrong. Simply noticing can be enough.

Over recent months, I’ve noticed myself in a calm, quiet place. It’s comfortable, safe, consistent. But I’ve also felt a pressure to make a decision: to stay in this safe place or take steps to pursue something I’ve been working on for a while, and to let go of things that are keeping me where I am.

Every time I tried pushing a little more, I’d end up pulling back and to my familiar safe, place. Nothing wrong with that, it also felt like I was trying to force something that just wasn’t ready to happen.

I wonder if all the suggestions of goal setting, new habits etc around new year can for some feel like a similar pressure or an implied message that something about themselves needs to be fixed or changed. 

Recently I have come to look at this quiet time like a season change for me.

It has been a wintering.

A time to just stand and stare.

I am reminded of this quote by Hal Borland:
'No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.'

~Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons

When I read this, I hear and recognise that there are times when we naturally find ourselves wintering, and that however long that period lasts, it may be quietly preparing us for what comes next. I don’t hear this as a message about action or change, more as a reminder that stillness has its own place within the wider cycles and stages of our lives.