I resolve: Mindfulness for Your 2022 New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! (Or, even a Less-Catastrophic Year? There were fervent expectations for 2021 after the awful year 2020. It worked out, you know.

It is common to hear stories about New Year’s resolutions being set. goals timelines for better weight management exercise and time to do this or that profitable enterprise. This marketing period is called “New Year, new you” by publishers. The traditional New Year’s resolutions could be silly in this time of political, social and viral uncertainty. Other than perhaps to smile more or curse less.

Mindfulness practices

We can still set our minds to act locally even in this moment. This requires inspiration, sometimes perspiration. A fresh year is better than a new year for a renewed intention to increase our daily efforts. Mindfulness practices are really helpful, beyond the (circularly suggested) resolution to begin or better keep a regular meditation practise.

It is possible that we are more sheepish than others about the idea of joining other sheep in rote, but uninformed New Year’s resolution making. Setting resolutions without a clear intention and monitoring them closely is not worth it. Failure, or self-sabotage is not a good way to look at the individual outcomes. Weight unchanged, backseat still in chaos, budget still in disorder are all bad outcomes. This can even reinforce the feeling of incompetence when looking in the mirror.

Ideas to Consider

We don’t have to abandon our resolution plans. There are many things to be aware of, aside from the traditional tactical guidance on resolutions – to set concrete and achievable goals and plan steps to success, as well as to buddy up with others to support you – here are some additional ideas.

• The first is preparatory. Identify your commitment level and why you are making the resolution. It is a good idea to spend some time with “my” (the thing you want to do better/not do as much of the going forward) on the cushion. This “theme ingredient” practice will be covered in greater detail in my meditation guide. But here’s a quick summary. This is a different way to use our minds, but it’s not the right time for analysis. We can instead start with simple breath meditation and then add “I want some weight loss” or “I want my family to be kinder,” as conscious ideas in awareness. Then, observe how it works, what happens. Does energy go up? Are thoughts of failure blizzarding upstairs or do they go up? Does the heart feel a ache for sadness? Actively moving the focus of observation to a more complex phenomenon is not an introductory kind of practice, but once we get a handle on the basics of watch/lose/regain/back at it, we can go there. What are the benefits? It is possible to see what might be preventing us from achieving our goals. It is possible to discover that a solution is forced upon us by our habits rather than being truly committed.
• Another idea is to do a daily maintenance check as part of your daily sitting. We can keep a resolution in our minds via sitting practice, and then move onto the next step: The resolution will not slip away if we have a regular practice plan. As we move along, we can assess how progress and struggle affect us and respond to our feelings of hope, frustration, or other emotions that may arise from the striving.

We can be more aware of the goals and less like sheep without a shepherd.