Sunday, December 27, 2009

Mental Health Mondays: New Years Resolutions pt. 1

Let me cut to the chase on this one, because the holidays can be a busy time for everyone.

Okay, so the New Year is well on its way. Which means lots of people are beginning to think about new years resolutions and whatnot. Which can definitely be a great thing to do—I think that setting reasonable goals for oneself can be a much-needed thing sometimes.

However, I think there can also be a dilemma attached to new years resolutions. Not necessarily in the goal-setting stage, but in the reflecting stage. Looking back at the past year, there are a couple of goals that I set for myself last year that I did not meet. I think this is the case with most people, to some degree or another. We experience some degrees of success for sure, but when that success does not feel 100% complete it can be very easy to focus on the negative of what we “failed” to accomplish, rather than the positive that we succeeded in accomplishing.

(To briefly digress before I return back to this post, I want to put in a quick plug for Avonlea’s blog that will be coming on Thursday. She will focus on some top-ten new years resolutions. And, while I’m not entirely certain of her focus, it will definitely be something to check out!!)

So often, we subconsciously allow ourselves to get caught up on things that bring us down rather than build us up.

If there’s something I can challenge you (and myself too!) with in regard to this area is to work at having a change of perspective. I am not saying that we should pretend we are absolutely perfect and completely successful….I do not think that would be very healthy. But I am suggesting that we try to intentionally focus on the good things that we have accomplished in the past year. It could be something huge that comes to mind immediately, or you may have to spend a bit of time thinking over the year’s events in order to come up with a few solid things.

But I am certain that there are great things that we all have done with ourselves and with our lives in this past year. And I think if we take the time to focus on them a bit more, rather than simply brushing them off as expectations and focusing on the negative, we will be able to create a great impression of the past year AND simultaneously help enter the new year with a healthy mindset.

Cheers,
Nadya

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