As we enter 2025, I am reflecting on the nuance of our approaches to the New Year threshold. Some of us like to set intentions, while others prefer to move on and not think about it too much. In many of my New Year meetings, the theme of intentions or resolutions does come up, maybe even out of habit. Here is how I approach this topic.
Self-development is an integral part of the counselling and coaching role, so I tend to use my December for annual reflections and I do set intentions. However, I stick to some personal rules:
- Keep intentions soft – pay attention to the language of capitalism, patriarchy, and domination – hard, demanding, expecting language which likes to industrialise our bodies and minds (aka considers humans as if we were machines) and fit them to an impossible mould, a box. I invite fluidity, ambiguity even. Some form of movement and celebration of diversity.
- Keep those intentions tentative – we may be able to move towards some goals, even resolutions (harder commitments), if this helps. However, it is healthy to allow a huge dose of self-compassion simply because we are ever so dependent on the systems we live in. Some changes will be possible; others may be affected by our tribes and environments. Let’s stay kind to ourselves.
- Keeping my intentions meaningful to my journey – I do not like the word “growth” because it is very much linked with the neoliberal language of economic production, and I am not an industry or a product. I am a living, breathing human walking the path of my life and enjoying the learnings that I come across on the way. My intentions are directional, and if they are expansive, I ensure they are also inclusive, not dominating others. This is something we really need to keep in check in the healing professions.
If you need a resolution and it helps to use the context of the New Year to include healthy changes in your habits, I fully support those. However, I do invite the curiosity: how would it be if the changes were softer but more powerful and more sustainable? How would it be if the intention to change honoured our true, complex, messy and magical nature and social positioning? Let me know what you think.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
