New Year, New You

Mythology has hundreds of stories of beings re-making themselves, becoming completely new, washing away all trauma and walking forth with a light heart.

It seems to be a bit harder for mortals, but we can still attempt it.

The New Year is our traditional time to take stock of our lives and decide on what changes we want to make. This year, the astrology lines up with it as well: Venus is in Retrograde and Mercury will join her soon. Retrogrades ask us to step back and re-evaluate, and Venus Retrograde especially.

What do you want out of your life? Is what you have making you happy? If not, what can you do to change it?

The part where it gets really hard is remembering to take it slow. Humans are impatient creatures. We want everything now, or yesterday, preferably. Our New Year’s Resolutions inevitably fizzle out because we wake up on Jan 1st and create ridiculous expectations for ourselves.

Couch to 5K isn’t you’re on the couch on day 1 and day 2 you’re doing 5K. It’s small changes, over time. It’s building habits.

If you’ve decided you need to make changes, what small commitments can you make to those changes?

Start small and build up. Especially in a time of retrogrades, which warn against any bold, fast-moving forward action. Be ready to pivot and keep forgiveness in your heart.

It’s easy to blame ourselves when we fall down on the job. We make it even easier by setting ourselves up to fail in the first place. “I’m going to walk a mile every day!” we say on New Year’s Day, and within one week we’re not walking at all, except in circles of self-recrimination.

This year, commit to a new you by being gentle with yourself. Make a change: set yourself up to succeed instead of fail.

Get out of the rut of setting lofty New Year’s Resolutions, doomed to fail, and start with a New Year’s Affirmation instead.

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, you just might start believing in yourself.