20 New Year Actions You Can Do

And so we enter another new year. The ends and beginnings of things are always so BIG aren’t they, but sometimes take just a moment, and they are gone. Losing someone has this impact. They can be taken suddenly or have a lingering illness but in the end, their passing is just a moment. They were here and now they are gone. I have had so many beginnings and endings in my life I can not even tally them all up. Some of them have been passing moments, as I started something and then quickly realised to just let it go, it wasn’t really working out. Do you feel shackled by failure when that happens? I used to but have learnt to let things go, and that giving up can sometimes be the best thing you ever do. Making resolutions is all well and good but I think making a list of actions you can actually do, is a better way to approach things. Today I am sharing 20 New Year Actions You Can Do.

Failure and giving up can be the best learning places you ever have. Trying to keep something alive when it is dead in the water can be the most stressful experience, and making the call to let it go is empowering. What was a moment in your life where you started something and then thought, this is not working, and simply stopped? And what did you learn from that?

The other side of this is that there really is no time like the present. I have jumped so many times and sometimes these jumps ended with me on my face. Other times they ended in me flying. If you have a burning desire to DO something, now is the perfect time to start. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. It may never come. The tragedies the world has experienced recently have made me even more sure of this fact – our time here is short. For some of us, shorter than we planned. So my lovelies – just take the leap.

As we enter another new year I am not going to write you another “resolutions” post. I really don’t make them. I am not even going to tell you that making resolutions is one big fat fail. Most people don’t keep them. They just make them in the glow of clearing out the old and bringing in the new. Then the afterglow fades and life takes over.

Resolution means “a firm decision to do or not to do something”. But ACTION is a totally different thing. Action means “a thing done. To do.”

I don’t thing any time is particularly more important than any other to make goals, plans, dreams or action goals. But it is nice to start a new year with a fresh idea about things you really want to do, where you want to be, what you want to experience.

Here are 10 ideas for New Year’s Actions 

1) Plant a tree in your own garden or grow some vegetables with the kids
2) Learn to crochet, knit or draw
3) Bake some scones or cakes and have a high tea at work, ask everyone to bring something they made themselves
4) Visit a salvage yard and find something you love to upcycle for your home
5) Clean out the top cupboards and give the stuff you don’t want or need to charity
6) Sing more, Dance more
7) If you have held a dream for a long time this is the moment to start – don’t wait, don’t worry about what anyone will think, or about failing. Just start right now
8) Start saying hell yeah to things that excite you, and a firm no to things that drag you down. Learn to block and delete and ignore the haters – they are nothing to you
9) Write a real letter and post it – snail mail is so NOW!
10) Take 5 minutes each day for a mindfulness snack – a 5 minute moment of totally blissful mindfulness
Try this one from me – Ocean Mindfulness Snack

1. Burn a candle
2. Sit quietly
3. Relax your body but don’t drift away totally
4. Keep your hands and arms loose
5. Take 3 deep breaths in and out
6. Imagine the ocean in your mind
7. See the sparkling blue with white glistening on the perfect still day
8. Notice the pelicans, sitting by the sea, cuddled up together
9. Hear the sounds of children playing in the sand
10. Feel the sand between your fingers and toes, it is cold and slippery and gritty
11. Feel the warm sun and the gentle breeze on your skin
12. Hear the wind in the trees
13. Imagine there are shells by you – pick one up and toss it into the sea’s edge, watch it float out on the tide
14. Pick up 3 or 4 and toss them out into the sea
15. While you are doing this, each time you have a thought, pick it up and throw it out on a shell
16. Let the thoughts come and go like the tide, notice them, don’t buy into them, just notice them, pick them up and throw them out on a shell with the tide
17. Keep feeling the sun, the sand and the breeze
18. Hear the ocean and the birds, smell the salty air and taste it on your lips
19. Notice your thoughts, but don’t follow them, keep throwing them gently out into the sea, watch them leave and have a moment of mindful bliss
20. Return your mind to your space, hear the noises around you in the room, open your eyes and look around you and go on with your day, refreshed from your Mindfulness Snack

No matter what your dreams are, how big or small, they are wonderful, they are yours and they are there for the taking. Take action. 
Happy New Year from all of us here
xxx
Helen