NEW YEAR NEW ME!
The idea of hitting the restart button on life is just wonderful isn’t it? It’s not just encouraged, it’s expected of us during this time of year. Goodbye old body, goodbye debt, goodbye old job and hello new me!
It’s a grandiose idea but there are two fundamental elements to this thinking that I want to highlight before we forge on forward into 2019. Firstly, the NEW ME thinking is peppered with the subtext that the old me isn’t good enough and secondly, the new me is likely to take on more extracurricular activities, obligations and job opportunities in order to step into this projection of our perfect future selves. This sounds a lot like a little something called burn out.
WHAT ABOUT CURRENT ME?
If New Me is an ideal future self, then what we’re really saying is the old me is current me, and current me isn’t good enough. It’s a potentially toxic headspace in which we think of change, reinvention and the bettering of ourselves as a complete uprooting of who we currently are, flaws and all, whilst building a new mask of sorts that paints an image of who we will ideally become. This, we tell ourselves, will be when we finally feel happy!
As counter argument to all the brands that must be bombarding you right now with prompts to join their reinvention revolutions, I wonder if we could flip the script and think of new me as the same flawed person, but filled with more self-compassion and patience. A new me, who is really just current me, embarking on a rocky and non-linear road to self-appreciation and self-awareness. This way, I feel as though we immediately give ourselves permission to have fun NOW, rather than waiting for that future date when we have abs, instagram followers and hunnid dollar bills to finally be stoked on life.
Now I’m not making a case for stagnation. Change is inevitable and we can absolutely manifest new experiences, growth and learning, but I just want to advocate for a life lived from a more human experience. Try things and be a bit shit at them. Eat chocolate and just enjoy it before, during and after the fact for once. Call mum and tell her how much you love her. Water your plants and play them a song. I can’t help but feel that if we learn to enjoy ourselves more, the happiness and good life decisions will flow more easily and this is the radiant sense of self that we want to advocate for within the world!
A NEW TYPE OF RESOLUTION: DO LESS
The second element that I wanted to highlight was this idea of increasing our obligations when we’re in resolution mindsets. Typically, resolutions involve the taking on of more in order to become this ‘better self’. Read more books, crunch more abs, get more hot and get more woke. I just want to ask you to pace yourself and not burn out ok? Your goals are great, but it’s a lot of winning at life at the cost of living your life.
So I had a thought – I’d love for you to add a list of things you’d like to cut out or minimise in your life so that you can give yourself more ‘me time’. I’m now speaking from the personal standpoint of overcoming a tornado of 2017 to completely reject the tsunami of work opportunities that came my way in 2018 in favour of living life more. This is why I moved to Byron, to chill. This is why I then moved to New York, to grow.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In conclusion, we love you and we thank you for reading this far and being such an integral part of this community, both online and offline. We love seeing the responses from these emails and we love getting feedback. We don’t want packed out classes in the name of marketing tactics that prey on humanity’s collective insecurities. We are not here to promise you weight loss or cures for your mental health challenges. We are here to build a community with you in which we all have a dance. It may open the gate to a new path of healing and self-acceptance, but that’s ultimately up to you. But irrespective of this, let’s bump some Kanye together. Come to our dance class if you just want to dance without any expectations.
Love and light from me to you this 2018
x
Vanessa Marian
Groove Therapy Director