Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

Or, I guess, happy half-a-week-into-the-new-year. Same difference, it's still a new year and new decade.

Makes me feel old that I can say "my, that decade went by quickly!" I've certainly never been able to say that before.

My new years celebration was amazing - we went over to Jim Thorpe to ring it in with some new friends out there, and then we spent a quiet weekend of food and drinks - - it's as I say, Hazleton isn't a place, it's a state of mind.
(for me that state of mind includes lots of dessert and red wine...)

On January 1, this is what was attached to my tea bag, Chinese fortune cookie style:
(I think this is true for everyone, no?)
Because after all, a civilization is just a group of people and a world is just a group of civilizations, so our choices CAN certainly change it.
So get to work!
I think this year a great duty for us all will be to lead more mindful lives - don't waste your time, because who knows how much more of it any of us have?

Just a thought.

And tomorrow, there'll be a long overdue Carrots in the Kitchen post.

Today's quote:
Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.
~Brian Andreas

(btw, he's one of my new heroes and my quotes will mostly be from him. Here's his site.)

Resolutions

This morning I woke up to the inevitable ponderings that always show their faces around New Year's and birthdays.

What did I accomplish this year?
Who did I interact with, and did I make their lives better or worse, or neither?
Did I make any progress in my overarching life goals?
Can I be proud of myself?
What do I need to do next year in order to be the best version of myself possible?
How should I prioritize?
What would I like to do?
How can I embrace practices in the upcoming year that will further me as a person and will bring me closer to my ideal self?

And on it goes. In reviewing this year, I'm satisfied - not because I got everything accomplished that I would have wanted to, but because the decisions that I've made have poised me to jump into a new year that promises amazing experiences.

So, on to the resolutions:

1) Learn the piano. (that's a big one)
2) Meditate every day (I fall off the horse all the time)
3) Keep an electronic journal. My problem this year has been that I type a zillion times faster than I write, which makes for tired fingers and un-gotten-out thoughts. My journaling has been dry and lacking, just because I don't feel like friggin writing for that long. BUT, my mom got me the best Christmas present EVER - a netbook! A tiny one by HP that fits in my purse. Sooo, that means that journaling can now be done easier than ever. Another thing that made me want to write rather than type was the ease of flipping through pages rather than opening files (which feels awfully impersonal), so to remedy that I'll make myself a promise. If I can type almost daily, and good, real journaling, not a log of where I went and what I did and what was on the radio (although that stuff certainly has its place), I'll add pictures and get it bound next Christmas. That way, through the years I'll have a log that I can flip through, sitting on my shelf. Like a journal. Just not in my handwriting.

I think that's about it. I know that a lot of my habits will be changing this year because of the upcoming shifts in place (Texas), time spent (documentary and dissertation), and diet (raw foodist). More on all that later.

In any event, I like to keep resolution lists short and sweet. You're more likely to fail if there's a bunch there, rather than a few key things to focus on, if you ask me.

So that's that! What will you be aiming to do in the new year?

Double Double

No, not the In & Out burger.

But a resolution to make resolutions! I'll be typing 'em up, here, tomorrow, for the new year.

So this is a post about the potential post for tomorrow.

Kind of useless, actually.

However, shouldn't we all be thinking about our resolutions now? Isn't tomorrow the day to make them, which makes today the day to ponder them? To think about what's important? To begin to unwrap the past year in our minds, diving into the good and bad and into our own choices and behavior, and figure out what we'll be doing next year that will be different (and the same)?

That's what I'll be doing. Aside from eating my first ever batch of homemade peppermint bark, which is chilling in the fridge now.
(yum)

So, resolutions tomorrow! Think about it! What promises will you be making to yourself?

Resolution Resolutions

Only one word to describe my day: CRAZY. I won't go into the details, let's just say that it was one of those days. Not bad, just so busy that I think, at one point, my head may've been spinning around, exorcist-style.

Anyway, on to other things. Now that there's about a month left til the new year, I'm making resolution resolutions.

Sound silly? Ok, yes it does. But it's not, actually. Here's how it works -

You take stock of this past year, and see how you did. See what you want, and how you'd like the next year to go.

According to the Stages of Change Model, the first thing you do when there's time to make a major change is "precontemplate" it. As in, kinda sorta thinking about making the change. Or, even realizing that how things currently are isn't how you'd like for them to be, and therefore acknowledging that perhaps some sort of change would be a good idea, even if you don't know what the change would look like. (note: if you follow the link, they're talking a lot about addiction or destructive behaviors. I learned it while getting my master's in health, and the spin I was given was on picking up a healthy habit using the model, like exercising or eating right. Just sayin, ignore the negative stuff if you're reading up on it, as that's not really what I'm referring to here.)

So, this is my month of precontemplation. And, I am very excited to say, that there will be big, AWESOME changes in this next year! And, in this month, all I'm going to do is think about them. I'm not allowed to actually do anything. I'm going to build up steam, then be rearing to go by the time the new year rolls around. Stay tuned for updates, in a month :)

So, what might you get excited about in the new year?