Looking Forward to 2022

I stopped making a New Year’s Resolution a few years ago…I realized that over the course of nearly 20 years, it had always stayed the same: to get skinny.

For the first few weeks of each year, I’d restrict my calories and go to the gym…I’d tell myself that this year would be the one…this is the year I’d get skinny. I felt that if I just hated myself enough, it would put me on the trajectory that would lead me to loving myself. I told myself that if I was skinny, I would be happy.

I’d get to December and realize that I had again failed my New Year’s Resolution, sometimes heavier than when I set it, so I stopped making one.

This morning, I found myself in deep thought about my previous Resolution, and I realized that I HAD met it every single year. No matter what I weighed, by December, I WAS smaller.

My relationships with friends and family were dwindling over the years, and I made fewer NEW connections with strangers. My mind was shutting down because my perceptions of constant failure kept me from feeding it. My self-esteem became malnourished, and after decades of starving for light, my soul was left emaciated. I used to think I couldn’t manifest what I wanted out of life, but I was definitely skinnier, I just couldn’t see it on the outside.  

I’ve learned that I’m actually a MASTER at manifestation, but what I was manifesting did not always look the way I thought it ‘should’. I’ve realized that my focus on skinnier, lighter, less, fewer was getting me all of the above, and it didn’t stop until I stopped making a New Year’s Resolution and focused on feeding my spirit.

This year, though, I AM making a New Year’s Resolution. I’m resolving to fatten up my soul, bulk up my relationships with family and friends, plump up my mind with new knowledge and experiences, and beef up my focus on healthful living. This year, I resolve for GROWTH.

I’ve already grown from the person I was this morning through realizing that my past “failures” were not failures at all.  I realize, as I write these words, that I have already met my 2022 New Year’s Resolution, and it’s not even noon on January 1^st. Everything from this point is just extra credit (which I love).

My hope for 2022 is that my growth will touch others and have a positive effect in their lives. I hope that a stranger sees their beauty this year and starts to shine a little brighter. I hope that someone remembers the gifts within themselves and begins to share them with others. I hope that my family and friends FEEL how much love, gratitude and pride I have for each and every one of them.

For you, my friend, I hope you find GROWTH in yourself this year and that your soul stays nourished with love and light.

Happy New Year!