This week, we leave 2020 behind us. We’ve been moving – so slowly, it seemed at times – towards this moment all year, and now it is finally here. Part of me wants to take a flying leap into the New Year, to turn emphatically to a brand new page, to set a bright shiny new vision for the future.

However, here’s a prescription for a revolution: 

Let’s NOT set big goals and start plotting a course to reach them.
Let’s not solve anything right now.
Let’s not make any progress, or fix any issues.

This has been a groundbreaking, heartbreaking, deck-clearing year. It has called for a revolution in our culture, in our government, in our health-care systems, in our self-care. Let’s observe its passing with an equal measure of “revolution” by stopping the push, the grind, the performance. 

Instead of celebrating the New Year with resolutions and intentions, let’s gently roll over the finish line with mercy and deep self-respect. Let’s step over the line, sit down, pull up a blanket, and catch our breath. 

This week, let’s not rush forward. Let’s notice what support we need right now, and find the shortest route to get it.

Consider this: What will bring you comfort and strength in the next week? What could “taking exquisitely good care of myself” look like for you this week? What if self-care actually came FIRST on your list of priorities?

Let’s take this moment to pause, to rest, to put down the marching boots and the list of action steps. Let’s try filling in these sentences instead:

1. This week, I want to ___________ more. (Sing? Read? Smile?)
2. This week, I want to ___________ less. (Work? Clean? Produce?)
3. This week, I will act in greater alignment with my recognition that ____________ is important to me.

It is possible to hold immense compassion for ourselves. It is possible to put ourselves – our body, our heart, our health – first. It is possible to build deep health from the inside out. In fact, it’s necessary, if we are to have any resources left to be of service in the world.

Let’s practice this art together this year – starting with some New Year’s Revolutions. Tell me YOUR answers to the above 3 questions in the comments below.

“Practicing loving kindness meditation is like digging deep into the ground until we reach the purest water. We look deeply into ourselves until insight arises and our love flows to the surface. Joy and happiness radiate from our eyes, and everyone around us benefits from our smile and our presence.

If we take good care of ourselves, we help everyone. We stop being a source of suffering to the world, and we become a reservoir of joy and freshness. Here and there are people who know how to take good care of themselves, who live joyfully and happily. They are our strongest support. Whatever they do, they do for everyone.”

~ Thich Nhat Hahn, from How to Love