Wanna know what I love? I love the new year. Everyone is so hopeful and so excited for change. It's like spring on steroids. I think the falling away of a year and the bringing forth of a new year is a great time to reflect on your life in a profound way. I used to think new years resolutions were stupid and cliche and a waste of time because peoples hopes for self improvement never seem to stick past the first few weeks. But, my thoughts have changed!
It's a beautiful thing to want to be better and do better. I think that the problem a lot of people run into is that the either set unrealistic goals for themselves (ie after never touching a vegetable deciding that they're only going to juice from now on) or setting vague goals that have no concrete destination (be kinder, eat healthy, etc.) I think that a strategy in becoming this better person is training your brain to think differently. When you think differently, you act differently.
If you have thought and felt one way about something for an extended period (for instance a negative thought about a family member), your brain forms a pathway straight to that negative thought and feeling whenever you think of that person. We can train our brains to form new pathways with positive thoughts until thinking positive things kind of becomes an 'automatic' in our brains. The same can go for making healthy choices when it comes to food. If you're always thinking, 'I'm gross and fat. I'm craving a burger so bad,' you'll obsess about the burger and feel bad about yourself until that burger is in your mouth and offers you a little bit of relief from your negative thought pattern. But, if you replace that thought with, 'My body is a vessel. I want to treat it well.' You will likely make a healthier choice that coincides with that thought pattern.
Changing your thought pattern isn't an easy task, but it's one that I've been working on for the past few days and though outwardly I'm the same, I feel a daily sense of contentment inwardly that wasn't there before. It's biblical and since I was young I've loved the verse, 'Do not conform to the patterns of the world, but be renewed by the transforming of your mind.' I always knew there was something deeply profound about this idea, but never really explored how to put it into practice until now.
If you want to make any kind of change, go to the root of your issue: your mind; your thoughts. Your views, opinions, self-talk, and ideologies deeply affect your actions in all areas of life. Once you adjust your thoughts and attitudes (something that requires tremendous amounts of discipline and focus, and probably a lot of reading and prayer) you can start being a light. Without that, you'll never improve the way you'd hoped you would.
New year = new hope. And I think that's a beautiful thing.
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