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You are here: Home / Archives for New Years Resolutions

New Years Resolutions

New Habits, New Years Resolutions, and a New Way of Looking at Both

December 4, 2021 by Joi Leave a Comment

Good habits are worth being fanatical about. -John Irving

“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” ~ John Irving

I recently went down the rabbit hole-searching everything I could get my eyes on about new habits. Not to be confused with breaking old habits.. presumably bad since one wants to break their legs! That’s a whole other subject. I wanted to research the daylights out of new habits and I did just that.

I sought out information, opinions, quotes, graphs, and even infographics about new habits…

  • how they form
  • how long they take to become almost “automatic”
  • what gets in the way of forming positive new habits
  • how to set yourself up for success with your new habits
  • etc etc etc!

What got me on this kick? The first thought I entertained about New Years Resolutions. I happened to be thinking about getting yoga back into my life. Long story, short… For over 20 years, I did yoga daily for at least 30 minutes, usually more. Then I developed a hiatal hernia and quickly learned (the hard way) that many yoga poses and hernias do NOT play well together. I just stopped doing yoga altogether instead of wisely ditching the problematic poses and continuing with the rest.

What can I say… the fear of aggravating the hernia was greater than my common sense. Fear always, always, always trumps common sense when you let it.

Recently, I researched the subject and found that doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and other experts actually believe certain poses not only won’t hurt a hiatal hernia but may actually help by strengthening the region. So I began doing some poses that don’t involve rousing the sleeping beast (Lady Hernia) and fell in love with yoga all over again.

It’s been hard to incorporate it into my life, which is odd because it used to be as much of a habit as brushing my teeth. I found that some poses that I used to be able to easily hold for the count of 45 seconds made me as wobbly as a newborn colt after a mere 5 seconds. I thanked God, above, at that moment for making me a hardheaded gal who isn’t easily discouraged. Combined with always being up for a good challenge, I didn’t get discouraged (although it would have been easy to). I simply thought, “I’m making it a resolution to do at least 15 minutes of yoga each day… then build from there.”

Initially, I was thinking about this being a 2022 resolution, but then I thought, “Why wait?!”

I’ve been doing carefully selected yoga poses for a few weeks and can already hold most of them twice as long as when I restarted. Hey, that’s something!

I knew (from previous readings) that most people agree that it takes around 3 weeks to build a new habit successfully. So, with that reasoning in hand, it occurred to me – wouldn’t right NOW be the time to start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, as opposed to New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? If we start trying to form positive, healthy, new habits now, by the time the new year rolls around, we will have an absolutely beautiful head start.

Even if we only tackle one of our resolutions right now, if we make it a daily habit, it’ll free up more time and energy for other habits.

It also give us a healthy dose of much-needed confidence!

Make each moment count double! ~ Joi (“Joy”)


Filed Under: Fitness, Problem Solving, Self Care, Self Improvement Tagged With: forming new habits, habits, New Years Resolutions, quote graphic about new habits, yoga

If You’re a Hoarder (or Love One), 2018 Could Be The Year to Clean House Once and For All!

January 2, 2018 by Joi Leave a Comment

Can you believe it’s New Year’s Resolutions time again? Didn’t it seem like we were just making them last month? I actually had success with some of my resolutions from last year, so I’m really excited to tackle the ones I’ve made this year.

While I’m not a hoarder, I am pretty bad about holding on to things too long. I’m one of those who often tends to attach emotion and sentimentality to objects, so parting with them can be tough. HOWEVER, I have fallen head over heels in love with the way openness looks AND feels. I recently cleaned off a set of shelves in my home office and get a natural high each time I walk by it now.

It looks better. It feels better.

My own difficulties with “letting things go” causes me to greatly sympathize with hoarders. If we’re being honest, hoarders are nothing more than “me” on steroids…… “me” out of control. If I were to allow it, I could become one of their team members. I not only sympathize, but I can see how easily it would be for something like that to get out of hand.

One day, you might be “collecting” old books, and a week later you’re surrounded by dusty old books you haven’t touched in years.  Sure, it takes more than a week – but you get the point. Unpleasantness seldom stomps through the front door of our lives, it sneaks in like a stealthy ninja and catches us by surprise. Suddenly we find ourselves looking around and thinking, “Where did all of this stuff come from?!”

Many people are unkindly judgmental of hoarders.  They ask, “Why don’t they just freaking throw things away!!??”  Come on, let’s be reasonable – if it were that easy, don’t you think they would have by now?!

I’m not psychologist – heck, the closest I ever came to psychology were classes I took in High School and College. However, common sense, reading, and knowing/loving a hoarder firsthand has taught me that the hoarding serves to fill a void.

Every single time.

Sometimes the individual has experienced a great deal of loss in their life and accumulating things serves to surround them with things “no one can take away.” Other times the individual (through relationship problems, financial distress, or health issues) has known an uncommon amount of stress in their life and, unknowingly, simply wants to be able to control something…. or rather, some things.

Sadly, the situation escalates to the point that the individual is overwhelmed and choked by their “collection.” To compound the matter, they often catch a great deal of flack from family and friends. I’ve even heard of family members who refuse to visit their “loved one” until they clean up their home.

I’m sorry if this sounds cruel, but that’s about as selfish a reaction as I’ve ever heard of. We should love one another through problems, not hate one another through problems!

If you are a hoarder or feel for certain that you are “on your way,” I hope you will make this the year you break free from these chains. They’re holding you back, holding you down, and holding you at arm’s length from the life you deserve.

What You Gain from Letting Hoarding Go

  • You will feel 110% better. When you walk through your house and things look “pretty,” your mood will soar.
  • You’ll be healthier! Hoarding is as bad for your physical health as it is your emotional and mental health. Excess “things” collect excess dust, which is obviously the worst possible thing for your respiratory system. You’ll find yourself breathing easier and will have to stop and remind yourself exactly why this is.
  • Too many things lying around can also pose a safety problem. Not only are they easy to trip over, excess knick-knacks can post issues for pets and small children.
  • You’ll spend less time searching for things.
  • When you defeat this very REAL problem, you’ll gain so much strength you’ll want to tackle another problem, even if you have to borrow someone else’s!  Whenever we switch positions from being overcome to being the overcomer, we gain a heckuva lot of strength.  And that is an especially beautiful thing.
  • Even if your family still comes around and hasn’t essentially written you off (because they’re cool like that), they will enjoy their visits a great deal more and may even come around more often if you de-clutter and create a cleaner, more open environment. Whether you totally realize it or not, excess clutter is stifling and uncomfortable to be among. This may not make sense to you, but it’s simply the truth… whether you really want it to be or not.

Please allow this to be the year you break out from under this weight. When we feel overwhelmed the absolute hardest step to take is the first one. It feels like a HUGE step uphill in 10 feet of snow! But the good news is that each step thereafter is easier. Before you know it, it doesn’t even feel like you’re going uphill anymore and as for the snow… what snow? Momentum plows right through it.

While you could use the motivation of surprising your loved ones before their next visit to inspire you and get the ball rolling, you have to remember that you’re doing this for you as much as you are for them.

Why? Because you deserve better than what you’re settling for, that’s why!

If it sounds like I’m begging you, know this…. I am. As I said above, I knew and greatly loved a hoarder and, sadly, she never took the first step. Truth be told, she was a hoarder before there was even a word for it. Back in the day, they were simply called “pack rats,” weren’t they?! No matter what name it goes by, it remains a less than best way to live.

Below is an infographic from Simply Self Storage showing what cities hoard the most. Seems to be a real issue in Florida for some reason! Maybe they’re outdoors so often, the indoors is left to its own devices. I’ve lived in Florida before and know darn well how hard it can be to stay indoors.

Self storage units are actually a pretty ingenious solution for things you want to keep but don’t want to keep right under your nose. They keep your possessions safe, preserved, and, usually, within minutes of your home.

While it’s always best to part with what you can, there are somethings that simply can’t be parted with. That doesn’t mean they have to take up valuable closet or shelf space, though!

For more information, see What Cities Hoard the Most on Simply Self Storage’s blog.

Filed Under: Infographics, Problem Solving Tagged With: hoarding, how to deal with hoarding, New Years Resolutions, self improvement infographic

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