New Year, Same Me.

The other day I was listening to We Can Do Hard Things and instead of talking about resolutions they were talking about coming into 2023 with either YES or NO energy surrounding specific topics. Energy, reactions, practices, choices - they seem easier to look at with a concrete answer behind them. Like YES - I’m inviting more of this into my life. NO - I’m not putting up with that bullshit anymore (from myself or other people).

So I sat down and made my list of Yes’s and No’s and at the end I came up with something pretty straightforward. In 2023 it’s still me kicking around in this meat suit (a phrase which comes from one of my favorite Hunter S. Thompson quotes).

You are a ghost driving a meat covered skeleton made from stardust riding a rock floating through space. Fear nothing. - Hunter S. Thompson

I think as you get older you’re just going through life collecting info on what works and what doesn’t. This year I don’t really have any huge life moves on the agenda. In recent years I was hustling for things like a big move cross country, starting a side-hustle business, fully gutting and renovating an old house. So without those huge mile markers my yes’s and no’s were more personal, tiny, working on the inside, behind the scenes type of things.

One of the biggest behind the scenes things that comes up this time of year is always taking care of my body. I was talking to my sweet friend Heather about this on New Years’s Day in Naples - I want to take great care of my body - but I want to do it in a way that feels soft and generous and easy. Last year I was trying to push, push, push and I pushed myself right into this weird hip injury because I was riding 100 miles a month on the Peloton and unbeknownst to me I already had this weird foot tilting thing going on and it made this pre-existing hip tightness become totally unbearable. It sucked.

So now - I’m going in light. I’m walking. I’m collecting information (I read this great book called Women, Food & Hormones), I’m making slow and informed choices and doing it in a way where there’s no punishment - instead let’s see what happens if we move at a snails pace and keep it chill and just BE NICE to myself.

In 2023 I’ve been asking myself things like: how can kindness to self and others show up more? How do I take care of myself in a way that’s supportive? To me this is the YES. The NO is the restrictive, militant, hard-stop “goals” that I used to define for myself that weren’t serving me. There were a few other big NO’s on my list but those are for another post (I love a good boundary in relationships!). For now: YES to gentle is the vibe of 2023. YES to behind the scenes hustle. YES to kindess to self and others.

Here’s to 2023 being great. New year. Same me.