No New Years Resolutions

I don’t know about New Year’s resolutions. It seems everyone is setting themselves up for failure right from the start. I see it every year at the gym, January always annoys me because of all the new people at the gym. Suddenly every machine is taken, the sauna is crowded and you’re relegated to 4+ people per lane in the swimming pool. I find it especially annoying in the pool since the new people are unfit and very slow and clog up the lanes. By mid-February the gym is almost back to normal though so all these people with their “get fit” resolutions have already stopped coming.

So I resolved to make no resolutions this year. Instead I want to continue focussing on intentional living as I have been doing the last half year. I am finding this is automatically making me more critical of the things I put in my home or body.

Since deciding to live with intent I have;

·         Started eating more veggies and reduced the amount of processed meat I eat. Every week I now look forward to our packet of organic vegetables and fruit. What will we get and what new recipes can I try out? I often have to google stuff since I don’t always recognise everything. A bonus here is that I’ve also started cooking more meals from scratch and am finding it more enjoyable than I anticipated.

·         Seriously cut-back on the cosmetic chemicals I use. I make my own shower gel and deodorant and am experimenting with a moisturiser as well. I still buy shampoo but it is an eco-friendly one and I recognise all the ingredients on the label. The only make-up I still use is an eye-liner pencil and some blush. Making my own products is also a lot of fun. I like the smells of the essential oils I have and trying out new formulas

·         Reduced the amount of stuff we own. I have about a third of the cloths I used to and have decluttered in the rest of the house as well. It has left me feeling energetic. I have accomplished something, cleaning is easier and I like coming home in the evenings to a house that is reasonably clean. The knock-on effect is that I feel I have more time and so I have already increased my study workload for this year so I can hopefully graduate a bit sooner.

·         My sister helped me set-up a small garden. I am trying to maintain it and add to it. I am not a great gardener and I often find it a hassle to have to water the garden but I also appreciate the fact that it gets us out the house more often and we now enjoy our backyard more than we used to. We can now relax outside in the evening instead of inside where we would be tempted to watch TV or something.

So all in all I think I am already on a good path and want to continue that journey.