Setting intentions for the coming year

(Nimue)

I like to be gentle with myself and come up with broad intentions rather than resolutions that feel like internalised capitalism. I’ve been sitting with these for a while, and these are promises I am making to myself as I move forward. I think what I’m doing this year is worth considering and I hope other people will adopt some of this too. Especially the first one. Please do the first one.

I’m going to be kinder to myself.

Being kinder is going to involve more rest, more attention to my health and releasing harmful things I have internalised.

I’m going to trust myself.

I’m going to trust that my intentions are good, my feelings are reasonable, my needs are real. I’m going to trust my body to know what it needs and I’m going to act on that. Further, I am going to trust my gut feelings, my instincts, intuition – call it what you will. I’m not sure what to call it, but I’m going to stop over-riding it because my anxieties are not irrational and I am not going to keep treating them that way.

Further to that, I’m going to trust the work that I do and the work I feel called to do. I’m going to trust my own sense of purpose and focus on doing the best that I can.

I’m going to befriend all of the different parts of myself. I’m making room for all of that, and I am not going to keep fighting myself or trying to suppress parts of myself to make other people more comfortable. I am going to be more open emotionally and I will learn not to be afraid of crying.

Whatever else I do, or don’t do in the coming year is going to flow from there. I want to leave that as open as I can, so I can find out where this takes me, without assumptions or pressure.