Happy 2024
Jan 01, 2024
We’ve made it to 2024! Just the fact that we are here is worth celebrating. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely lived through quite a few interesting times, situations, and experiences. Through all of that, you’ve gained memories, scars, lessons, and wisdom. Naturally, this is the time of year when we throw all those lessons aside, ignore all that wisdom, and decide to become resolute in turning a new leaf over for our lives.
Yes, I’m talking about the self-esteem-sucking abyss of the New Year’s Resolution.
I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why we have created an annual time to set ourselves up for failure. Throughout my life, I’ve seen hundreds of people set New Year’s Resolutions for a new life on the first of the year. I’m not immune to this, except I seem to pick any time of the year to become whimsically resolute on making changes in my life. Why wait till January, right?
Anyway, it’s an interesting phenomenon. We make it through a year, we evaluate the year, we identify things we want to change, we need to change, we HAVE to change, and then we say
“Come January, I’m done with ____________.” And then, come February, we realize we missed it; we didn’t even make it a month, and now we absorb failure.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change and become “better” or reach higher for a “good” life. But there’s something not right about not being able to achieve what we set out to achieve. It’s great to want to become better. It’s not great not knowing how to become better.
Many of us fail to fulfill our resolutions because we fail to realize that we are fighting against our neurology. We are trying to change our habits when our habits are physically etched into our brains; there are physical structures (neural connections) that we have built that run the programs of the habits we want to change.
It’s not enough to try to change our behavior or thought patterns for a few weeks; we need to change our neural circuitry. And that takes time - more than a few days or even a few weeks. It’s also not necessarily easy because, usually, we try to take a grand, sweeping approach to change rather than making small tweaks or strokes. Often, we try to face a problem head-on with brute force instead of gently sneaking around the back…
Another thing that often trips us up is that we sometimes try to approach change through the wrong “door.” What I mean is that we may try to approach something mentally when we would be better off approaching it physically. We are all different, but it is often easier to approach the body to get to the mind than to approach the mind to get to the mind. For some, it may be easier to approach the mind to get to the body than to approach the body to get to the body.
But in the end, if we want to succeed at creating lasting change in January or any time we recognize that change is needed, we need to know how to approach the literal “root” of the issue, our nervous system.
We need to either build and create the neural connections for the habits that we want to see in our lives, or we need to starve and deconstruct the neural connections for the habits we want to remove from our lives. Understand, how you think is habitual, and you’ve created the wiring for your thoughts. If you’re a worrier, you’ve wired that inside yourself. If you’re a negative nelly, you’ve wired that inside yourself. If you’re an over-consumer of food, Facebook, Tic-Tok, porn, gossip, or sunsets, you’ve wired that inside yourself.
I don’t know what it is you may want to change about yourself, about your life. I do know we are often hard on ourselves, and we don’t always allow ourselves grace; we tend to be all-or-nothing types. I propose a gentle movement plan that you can implement into your day that may help you gently “sneak around the back” and allow you to create the changes you want to achieve in your life. And I’m sorry, but this just may not make any sense as to how it could work, but trust me, there just might be something to this.
I’m proposing that you embark on a 10-minute movement plan every day without absorbing any grief if you miss a day. If you do miss a day, just smile and pick it back up the next day.
I don’t know what you want to change, but I may know what you might now be thinking. Yes, this movement plan could lead you to create a change in your life that seems completely unrelated to movement.
Hear me out. If you move well, you feel well. If you feel well, you think well. If you think well and feel well, it is easier to make good and helpful decisions that open desired paths for your life. If you move well, feel well, and think well, you will likely not worry, be stressed, eat stressed, be angry, wage war against social media, or whatever else it is you want to change about your life. You may even be able to earn a better living for yourself because you can clearly make sound decisions stemming from a positive affect (state of being) or because you are simply more pleasant to be around.
Consistent movement can do all of these things for you because movement is the action that leads to changes in emotions, thoughts, hormones, and even neural wiring. If we show up every day and move, we are going to be healthier in all areas of our lives. Period.
So, here is your EXTREMELY SIMPLE movement plan that just may lead to peace in you. Peace inside of you is the absence of warring within yourself…
Do this every single day. But don’t fret; smile and pick it back up if you miss a day. Just keep showing up as often as you can until showing up is just something that you do because showing up is who you are.
- Practice keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth at all times unless you are talking or eating.
- Practice diaphragmatic breathing for 3 minutes. Learn how to fill your lungs up from the bottom to the top and from the back to the front. Breathe through your nose.
- Practice moving your eyes and head.
- Perform head nods (move your eyes and head up and down as if you are nodding “yes”) for 1 minute.
- Perform head rotations (move your eyes and head left and right as if you are gesturing “no”) for 1 minute.
- Practice rolling on the floor for 3 minutes.
- Don’t overcomplicate this. Just get down on the floor and discover all the ways you can roll from your belly to your back and from your back to your belly.
- Here’s a video to help you: https://youtu.be/C7Vxcb1yOro
- Practice rocking on your hands and knees for 2 minutes.
- Put your eyes and head on the horizon, keep your chest “tall” or “proud”, and rock back and forth on your hands and knees.
- Here’s a video to help you: https://youtu.be/EBs0zkM-h6c
- As often as you can, go for a walk. Take a 10-minute brisk walk after each meal or go for a brisk 30-minute stroll.
- Keep your eyes and head on the horizon, and swing those shoulders!
That’s it. If you do this every day, you will experience a sweet, gentle, gradual change in yourself. You will start to feel better physically (hurt less, less stiff, more strength), and your affect will improve. You’ll become emotionally stable, clear-minded, confident, and calm. Your relationships will improve, your vocation will improve, and your life will improve. Why? Because you will have changed yourself from the inside out. You’ll create new neural wiring that supports the person you want to be. And this leads to opportunities for major changes in your life later on.
How long do you do this for?
Yes.
Just do it. There’s no reason not to do it and every reason to do it. And it's just too easy not to do. This is doable. It’s not hard. All you have to do is show up and move.
This is a great starting point. It can lead you to where you want to go. Eventually, it may lead you to create bigger changes or tackle larger goals, and you’ll be ready for them because you are wiring yourself up for success.
You can create a new you and a new life that keeps getting better simply by taking advantage of your design to move and be.
Move on, my friends.
Tim
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