Please, Don’t Change a Thing

Mindfulness begins with noticing—no judgment—no changing anything. So, are you closing the year with compassionate awareness of all you have accomplished, survived, created, and managed over the past year? Or are firing-up your inner critic and amplifying all the things you believe you need to change?  

After an incredibly stressful month for so many, what possesses us to end the year adding on more? We sign up for mini-workshops, make lists, set goals, buy more stuff to reach them, get excited, vow to make ourselves healthy (70% of all resolutions), and demand that we change. Ugh. It’s such a widespread and exhausting practice. Maybe that’s why 23% of well-intentioned folks quit their resolutions in the first week and only 9% keep them for the year.

How about spending this new year focused on the things you would never change about yourself and amplify those?

Focusing on what’s present, without judgment (that’s key), can naturally lead to healthy self-care, more positivity, a feeling of abundance, and even joy in every-day living. Noticing without judgment allows life to prompt change on its own. When you remove the harsh critic, your body, mind and spirit naturally gravitate toward health. It is the awareness, without judgment, that opens the path to change.

I invite you to join me in keeping it simple and powerful this year—notice what is already wonderful about yourself and make that bigger. No judgment. No changing anything. What a beautiful practice to teach children.

You are invited to take a few minutes with the journal prompt below—in the classroom, at home, with friends, solo in a coffee shop, at a family gathering—and make 2024 the year of amplifying what you would never change. I feel healthier already.