My strange realizations and New Years intentions

I had a weird realization recently. I don't remember a single time where the coming of the new year made me feel excited and invigorated. It has always seemed to be a stressful time in my life and I'm not exactly sure why. With the new year and my birthday so close together (January 8th), the marking of another year seems to smack me right in the face. Each year I look over the previous with regrets and shouldda couldda woulddas; fears of getting older and fears of not being wealthy enough, independent enough, or together enough for my age. It all seems so silly but I'm certain I can't be the only one. So this year I've been working hard to really think about what I would like to do with this new year we've been blessed with. And, honestly, I am super excited about it. As I mentioned this before, I have been working on refining my goals and intentions over the past few weeks. I even made a vision board (which everyone should do because it's fun and easy. I'll share mine soon). 

This post on Yoga Journal explains the difference between goals and intentions well. 

"Goal making is a valuable skill; it involves envisioning a future outcome in the world or in your behavior, then planning, applying discipline, and working hard to achieve it...Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are "being" in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever-present "now" in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values."

My intentions for the year might be to live more simply and in the moment, become present in each moment, focus on my intuition (go with my gut), radiate love, etc. My goals, on the other hand, would be to do yoga at least 2 times a week, physically minimize the junk (physical and emotional) that is cluttering up my home, life, and mind space, read more, bake a cake, etc. 

I am a person who honestly believes that our minds have more power than we tend to understand. I believe that what you put energy into is created. If you think everyone is out to get you, everyone will be out to get you. Once I began delving into this idea of setting intention, I had some crazy realizations. For example, I realized my intentions for my store and blog were ALL wrong. I had been doing things because I thought that's what I was supposed to do and because I saw other people doing them. I was aiming for acceptance and awknowledgement from others in the industry and was getting angry that things weren't unfolding as perfectly as I had anticipated. By operating from a place of frustration and lack, I was creating frustration and lack. As I began looking deeper, I realized I had been operating out of a fear based place and that kind of energy is not going to help me. By changing my intention, I change my outcome.  I don't know how things will reveal themselves but I know they will and I'm having more fun in the process. Of course I have days that I feel negative and want to give up but I've becoming better at noticing those emotions, stopping them from taking over, and resetting my intentions- "When you're grounded in your intention, you are never helpless in how you react to any event in your life...you are not a victim, nor are your happiness and peace of mind dependent on how things are right now."

With the new year looming and coming up quick, let's all prepare our minds for this gift- a new beginning. Woo Hoo! 2013 is gonna be our year!