New Year’s resolutions versus living with intension. This is one of my old posts that I’m transferring to my new blog website. It was a good reminder reading through it again. I’ve given up setting resolutions ages ago as I never follow through so what’s the point, right? How are you doing with yours? Still fulfilling your resolutions or you’ve already given up? In the past year I have learned more about setting intensions, slowing down and enjoy the journey of life. To set intensions correctly you first have to do a bit of inner work and that’s what I’ve done over the past weeks/months.
Let’s see how this blog post can help you to set intensions and enjoy the journey instead of craving for a certain outcome and force yourself into doing things. As my blog is based around quilting I will use this as my main examples but it can be projected to anything in your life and any habit you would like to change. Cause in the end everything you do will ultimately affect another area in your life.
First of all what’s the difference between resolutions and intensions.
Resolution: Usually at one time in the year, on NEW YEAR’s Eve we set our resolution. We pick something, a habit we don’t like and we want to change it. Maybe we want to reduce TV time and spent more time creating. We look at an outcome that we would like to achieve and that becomes our goal. Which is generally a good idea and for some people this approach is enough to be successful. But other’s like me struggle with it. 😉 We want to follow through but our habits that we have accumulated over the years usually sneak in and pull us back into our old habits hence we seem to fail in reaching our goals. And once we feel as a failure we tend to just give up and tell ourselves that’s just who we are and we are never going to change. We move on and every year we give it another try or even give up all together. 😉 Does that sound familiar to you?
Intensions: Can be placed at any time of the year. They don’t come with the pressure of now is NEW YEAR and I HAVE TO change something. Mind you we receive lots of energy during the start of a new year to pursue these goals but it will fluctuate during the year. So we should better be prepared for that. Another very important aspect of intensions is that we slow down, we train ourselves to be aware about every moment and we dig deep to find out our values and what we truly stand for. Intensions can help us to envision what person we would like to be and set us on a journey that fills us with joy. With intensions we may not see the results right away but we slowly work our way towards them and we focus on the journey itself not so much the ultimate outcome which is still present but we focus on the whole journey instead. And because we become aware of ourselves and our surroundings we are better in making adjustments and form new habits that can benefit us in reaching our ultimate goal/vision. I hope this doesn’t sound too confusing. It becomes clearer the more you read into this topic and start working on yourself to become more aware and change little things.
To give you an example this is the formula that I’m following this year. After reading lots of books about this topic I’ve noticed a pattern and to me this is basically the process in my head when I decide on my action steps.
- Dream, Wish or Vision:
It all starts with a dream, a wish or a vision - Awareness
You become aware and try to feel how you feel and why. You observe yourself to see what trickers what and why you behave the way you do. - Seeing the problem:
You ask yourself what’s the problem why do you feel that way. What triggers it? Why do you do what you do? - Look for solution:
You start to look for solutions. You get ideas or an impulse what could work. Maybe do some research and see what you could try or what could work. - Take action:
And then you have to take action. And between step 4 and 5 that’s when we experience resistance at it’s best. IT will stop us no matter how. It will do anything to stop us to make sure we never become our best selves. But we are smarter we know this now and we can implement strategies that help us to still take action.
If the action step we tried didn’t work we go back and find a different solution for the problem and try that. The important thing is we don’t fail, we always win. If something didn’t work out we know now that this doesn’t work for us and we experiment until we find a way that works for us. And we get there the fastest if we listen to how we feel. If we allow to have our feelings in our life’s and to truly feel them instead of pushing them away we can reach our goals faster because we are in line with our intuition.
I probably should point out sometimes the feelings we get are not always happy and positive feelings but all feelings are important. If you feel anxious or fear you best acknowledge that feeling and find a way that works for you to overcome it.
Most people should be able to deal with them on their own or have friends and families to talk about if need be but some people with severe depression may have to look into getting professional help. The most important thing is we listen to the feelings we have and become aware of them instead of just pushing them away and ignore them. We have them for a reason.
And in case you don’t believe me there is tons of books out there that explain this in detail but more about this later. 😊
Let’s give you an example.
I will use my vision/dream and break it down into steps so you get a bit of an understanding what I mean. Keep in mind though that nothing is set in stone and it’s an ongoing process. It evolves and changes with you.
- My dream, wish or vision
To connect the world through quilting and help other’s to believe in themselves by sharing my experiences and theirs. I also want to be a mum who does lots of activities with her child and I’d like to change lots of other habits that I have but we keep it short and sweet in this post otherwise I can fill a whole page lol. 😉 - Awareness
I’ve noticed over the past years that I really love creating quilts especially the type without a pattern. (I never was a big pattern follower but for some items it’s necessary lol). I also love doing quick and simple sewing projects and home décor items. And I noticed I don’t like creating the same item over and over again. I rather enjoy different items and challenge myself even though it also gives me anxiety at times.
One more important thing I’ve noticed is that I love working with my mind and being mindful. Incorporating stories, memories and feelings within my sewing projects. And yes it is possible, it’s just a matter of perspective. 😊 - Seeing the problem
I guess we always think other people have it all figured out but if we listen carefully they don’t. They might be better in some parts in life but not in others. For me I’ve noticed I watched way too much Netflix shows (And I’m guilty for watching the same show over and over “The Good Witch”… god I love that show 😉 ) I’ve noticed I have a hard time doing the first and last 10% of a project but I’m blooming when I’m doing the other 80% in the middle. What does this mean? My inner resistance keeps stopping me from starting new projects at times so it takes me a while until I get started. Then I’m rocking through and sometimes I struggle to finalize the last bit. Either something went wrong and then you put it away or don’t know a certain step or you just not a big fan of doing it (just say binding a quilt….. we all have our own binding relationship lol).
Some people call this inner resistance “the sewing mojo” and if certain things happen in life or out of random reasons we can lose it and just don’t feel like sewing or quilting. To tell you the truth I have been battling this inner resistance for all my life and not just with sewing with other things in life as well. For me I don’t talk about getting back your sewing mojo as this resistance is a constant in my life. But somehow I always managed to get over it. This year however I’m aware of this problem and I’m setting my intensions to work through it. You can join me if you want and we can see what happens in the end…. 😊 - Look for solutions
I’ve read into the issue of resistance and to my dislike it’s something that always accompanies a creative soul. If we want to create we will always have to fight resistance. There is no box to tick it off. And accepting this fact is the first step. Sometimes it will be stronger and other times it’s easy to beat but beating it we have to.
I wished I could already give you a solution for this issue but unfortunately I can’t. As this is my path that I have to go myself first.
And this is what I will do this year. Testing out different solutions and see what works for me. And maybe some of those things I’ve learned can help you as well.
One of our first step (it was a family decision and a few other reasons accompanied this decision) was that we cancelled Netflix. Yes we did and while noticing that they do offer really great shows that I do miss I’m aware that it’s also a waste of time . A waste of time because you sit there for hours and if you look back you feel awful because you didn’t create those items you wanted to.
I know some of you will say just watch them while sewing…. I tried that on my phone (don’t have the space in my sewing room for a TV nor do I want to create space for it) but I don’t like it. It’s definitely not for me. I don’t know why but it feels like I’m getting pulled away from my sewing and I’m not really there to watch the show either… And somewhere deep in me it feels like that I’m getting dictated by the TV instead of me making decisions. If it works for you that’s great but it doesn’t work for me. Cause one of the pleasures I do get while sewing is the feeling that comes up when I’m fully emerged in my craft. This is something I can’t really describe in words but it’s a magical feeling when you feel how the colours and the shapes come together. You have the person that you sew for in your mind, feelings and emotions are all present as well and they flow into your project while sewing. And if the TV would be running next to it I wouldn’t feel all this hence it’s not working for me. Experiencing these feelings and thoughts brings me joy and makes me feel alive. 😊 [this was last year since then we subscribed to Netflix again lol]
Another solution I’m working on is working on my mind and changing some habits that will help me in reaching my vision such as healthy eating and exercising.
Eating high carb, sugar diet and processed foods can cloud your intuition and feelings (at least for me….). And by lacking regular exercise your body will become weaker, you tend to become more slack and find excuses why you don’t do certain things. And believe me I had a time in my life I could have won a price in finding excuses why I’m not able to do certain things… But this time is over. I’ve started this year and I see those excuses for what they really are now “little lies to myself” that influence my daily actions. - Take action
This is the part that I’m focusing on this year. I’m great in all the other steps and always have been and improved others but this last step I was always lacking. I always had great ideas to solve a problem but I have always a hard time to follow through. That’s why this year I take baby steps and with the right intension I’m sure this will work.
We ticked off the action step to cancel Netflix as this was the solution to cut down TV time and it’s working. 😊
I have changed my diet already a couple of years ago…..slowly because I used to be a bread lover…. Still have to implement a few steps to make it easier to eat healthy when being out and have some healthy sweet snacks.
Currently I’m trying to find a way to incorporate a healthy morning exercise routine but I’m still struggling at this stage. But I know I will find a way eventually.
I’ve noticed that I like listening to audio tracks about positive affirmations and helping you to re-enforce a positive mindset while sewing. So this is something I explore a bit more in the next weeks and months. 😊
The take action list will probably change weekly and I will take note what works for me and ditch the ideas that don’t work.
While the content at the top is the same I have changed this end bit a little. I hope you liked this little inside into my brain ad approaches. I’ve learned more since I’ve wrote this post originally. So more to come. 🙂
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Talk to you soon and until then have a lovely day.
Sue
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