The gentle art of beginning again

I celebrated the classic New Year as a child, but to be honest, I never really got attached to it. The arrival of spring is the real thing for me too, when the colors breathe again.

Anyway, the topic of resolutions keeps coming back to me and I'm not really interested in the date, but in the rhythm of starting over. I've heard people make big promises for a long time, I'm not saying that I've never had one, but I can't recall a single one right now. Btw that's not what I want to talk (write about) now, but when a person allows themselves to go in a new direction. It takes consistency and a lot of patience, and I think that's why the bite is usually too big.

But somehow at the beginning of the year, most people still want to start with a clean slate. New goals, new energy, new plans. The big resolutions mentioned earlier, which of course have to be taken very seriously, so that by February there will probably be nothing left of them.

I don’t mock ‘failure’ at such times, because as time went on, I realized that the point of resolutions is not to keep them, but rather to connect with ourselves. When we make a resolution, we are essentially saying that we are important enough to ourselves to pay proper attention to our needs.

It might be worth trying small but loving habits for this reason. The ones that won't work because they were born on January 1st, but because they fit the rhythm of our lives.

Of course, sometimes everything will still go wrong, some things will be left unfinished, and some things will have to be started over. However, this really can't be called a failure and I also think that to be consistent, you have to be kind, not harsh. That way, we don't see it as a punishment, but as an invitation. A little more air, a little more joy. Maybe it will work better that way. When we don't struggle with it and don't want to carve a new person out of ourselves, then suddenly it's much easier to move forward. So I don't have any resolutions for this year, I have some handholds. I think that's more than enough.

If you have something you want to do differently this year, but you don't know how to go about it, I would just advise you to start small and be gentle with yourself. These habits will last us, not big words.

If you would like to talk about this, ask questions or share your own thoughts, feel free to write, you will find all the contact details on my page. Maybe we can inspire each other further.

For this post, I only used one of my own photos, the one from Lake Balaton. The giant heart drawn in the snow was such a spontaneous kindness from someone that it simply made me feel better. And the illustrations and the newspaper ad are just icing on the cake. There is no brake on the fun train.

Have a good trip,

Ivett