Showing Ourselves Grace
New Year’s Resolutions. I have a love/hate relationships with resolutions. I, personally, vow to do more of something I am already doing in the new year instead of setting firm goals. For example, I will say, “I am going to exercise more” instead of “I am going to lose 20 lbs.” I am not a fan of failure, so I really dislike setting myself up for failure by making goals I know are unrealistic for me to keep.
With all that being said, I started doing a few rounds of 10 day detoxes in 2016. They have served to be a nice reset for me to get back to eating more nutritious food rather than quickly grabbing junk in a rush. I don’t starve myself or only drink juice on these. I eat meat, fruits, and veggies. With the holidays this year, I got way out of routine with exercise and eating healthy, so I thought it would be a good thing to start the new year with another 10 day detox. Well, things didn’t go exactly as planned with Snowmaggedon and some other things in my personal life. I slipped up on my detox, (I promise this all has a point…) and I vowed to get back on track the next day. Guess what?! I didn’t do so well the next day either. At this point, I had messed up two days of my 10 days. That’s 1/5 for those that like math. I had two choices to give up or to keep going. I chose to show myself grace and keep going, and I am feeling awesome today.
I think it is so important to show ourselves the love and grace we would give our best friends. We wouldn’t tell our friends to give up after they slip and fall. We would pick them back up and help them to keep going. What would happen if we gave ourselves that same love and support? What would happened if we talked to ourselves in the same gentle manner that we do our friends? I bet we feel better about ourselves and that we would accomplish more things instead of giving up on ourselves.
Resolutions and goals are a good thing. We have the entire year to make whatever change or achieve whatever goal we set out to achieve. It’s okay if we slip, take a break, or even revise our goals or resolutions. Life is a journey and sometimes we have to take detours or sit still in traffic along the way in order to get to where we are going.
What are your resolutions? What about adding one to be nicer to yourself? Just a thought.
Best,
-L
