Ringing in the New Year

By Ashley Meyer, Marketing Coordinator at Southwest Health.

New Year’s is a popular time for identifying changes that you’d like to see in yourself and making new goals based on these self-observations.  While New Year’s resolutions have become somewhat of a cliché over the years, if you need some inspiration, my advice would be to ignore the nay-sayers of New Year’s resolutions and use it to your advantage.  However, with that advice comes another piece of guidance: be kind to yourself during your self-reflections.

Most of us, especially this time of year, fixate on our flaws.  As we reflect on the things we have yet to accomplish and our unmet goals, we tend to be highly critical of ourselves.  My challenge to you is to instead practice self-compassion.  Accept your “humanness” and forgive yourself for your mistakes.  When your inner-critic creeps into your thoughts, remind yourself that you are human, you are enough, that you work hard and that your intentions are always good.  Practice the same empathy toward yourself that you do toward others, and most of all, trust yourself and treat yourself with respect.

In fact, I just thought of my own New Year’s Resolution – To be nicer to myself.