I'm going to say something that may surprise you: you are perfect just the way you are. Yes, YOU. You are perfect the way you are right now. And so am I.
It doesn't matter if your thighs jiggle or your hair is frizzy or you eat donuts for dinner or you're cranky until you have coffee or you can't touch your toes or the only exercise you do it looking for the remote.
You are still perfect just the way you are.
This month my email and social media pages are clogged with ads for "the best diet", "special offers" for gyms, people I know starting "accountability groups", or influencers offering to share their exciting new plan which not “not a diet, it’s a lifestyle”.
Lifestyle is codeword for diet, by the way.
Over and over again I have seen the phrase, "This is the year I'm going to finally (insert a resolution here)".
The resolution almost always is something about weight or body size or a perception of what someone needs to do to be “healthy”. And you know what? It all makes me sad.
New Year’s Resolutions are not new. People have been making New Year's resolutions for about 4,000 years, since back when the new year started in March in the old calendar. Ancient Babylonians started making resolutions at the new year to get in the good graces of the gods.
When Julius Caesar implemented a new calendar system, the one that is the basis for today's calendar, he decreed that the New Year would begin in January, to honor Janus, the god of new beginnings. It was traditional to create an intention for something you would do in the new year as an offering to Janus, in the hopes of earning his favor for the rest of the year.
I’m guessing that not many of those ancient Romans had a resolution to avoid carbs or exercise every day at 6 a.m. Resolutions in the past were focused on being a better person and doing good in the world.
Fast forward to today when New Year’s resolutions mostly seem to be another way we tell ourselves -- or let society tell us – we are not good enough.
Only about half of people who make resolutions go in believing that they will stick to them, which seems like a venture that’s doomed before it starts. Less than 10% actually do follow through, or even get through the first month. And then they feel like failures.
As Mark Twain said, "New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
What if instead of making -- and likely forgetting -- some grand New Year's resolutions, we just woke up each day, grateful that we are alive? What if we just made a daily resolution to love ourselves and others just as we are?
Here are some resolutions I wish I would see:
• Today I am going to love myself more.
• Today I am going to list at least three things I'm grateful for in my life.
• Today I am going to stop judging people based on their looks or their race or their sexual orientation or the fact that they don't have a home.
• Today I am going to do something I always told myself I couldn’t do until I lost weight.
• Today I am going to put my iPad down, turn on some ABBA and dance with my kids.
• Today I am going to avoid chemical-laden shakes, and restrictive cleanses, and diets. Instead I'm going to eat to nourish my body.
• Today I am going to go to yoga/dance class/swim/ride my bike and appreciate the strength and beauty of my body no matter how it looks.
• Today I am going to sit still for 15 minutes and listen to my breath.
• Today I am going to do one nice thing for myself, that makes me feel better.
• Today I am going to recognize the perfection in myself and others.
You are perfect just the way you are, right now, today. I am perfect just the way I am. And even if we don't change one single thing about ourselves this year, we will still be perfect.
If that sounds crazy to you, I suggest that you make a New Year's resolution that you will say this to yourself over and over again until you believe it.
Happy New Year beautiful souls, embrace your perfection.
"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.”
— Ellen Goodman
About the Creator
Rose Bak
Rose Bak is a writer, author & yoga teacher who writes on a diverse range of topics. She is also a published author of romantic fiction. Visit Rose's website at rosebakenterprises.com or follow her on social media @AuthorRoseBak.
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