Instead of traditional New Years resolutions, my friend Alece does this awesome thing where she picks one word to focus on throughout the year. She then asks her friends to join in and do the same. I somewhat secretly participated last year. That is, I’m pretty sure Alece is the only one who knew I was doing it at all.
But that’s how I needed it to be. I needed it to be a private battle. Because in 2010, my word was forgiveness. It started out as a way to get myself to forgive the beatings my heart took in 2009. But it turned into so much more than that (Isn’t that the way it always goes?). Focusing on forgiveness helped me to take a step back and look at things thrown my way from a different perspective. It helped me deal with some pretty big obstacles in a different way. And though I can’t say that I ended 2010 by forgiving all the hurts that I originally set out to, I’m a heck of a lot closer than I ever imagined I would be.
But along the way in 2010, a secondary word also developed. As I struggled with my health, I found myself making some lifestyle changes. The biggest one was rest. While I’ve always been one to make time for sleep, I haven’t always made time for rest. Over the course of the year, I started to make time for both. I started to become more aware of what my body was telling me, on both a physical and emotional level.
And so I’m going to continue with both of those words in 2011, this time with people knowing about it to hold me accountable. But I’m also throwing in a new one: calm.
It took me awhile to settle on a word this year. And it had a lot to do with my last several months of 2010, which were utter chaos. But in that chaos, I learned a lot about myself. And there’s a lot that I would like to work on. But all of the words that I came up with, frankly, sounded perfect for 2012. I’m just not there yet. I need a word to get me from here to there.
Finally, in the rush of getting back to school before the quarter started, it hit me. I need to find new ways to look for the calm in my life. To take some time to relax. Before I can start work on other aspects of myself, I need to first reduce my anxiety level. Because my stress level is ridiculous…just ask the facial twitch I developed towards the end of last year
In a year that I will graduate and search for job opportunities, along with who knows what else, it has become clear that calm is one thing that I’m lacking. And I don’t want to lack anymore.
Step 1: Clean my room.
January 11th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
i love your heart, ‘risa. and your word is perfect. CALM. it speaks of simplicity, paring down, rest, peace, trust… there’s so much packed into that word.
i really really want this to be a year of CALM for you.
January 11th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
I’m not sure if I realized until you said it that “calm” incorporated trust. But you’re so right. And that makes it a little (lot) scarier…and even more perfect.
Thanks for helping me look at it in a different way. I love you, ‘lece.