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Health & Fitness

New Year Intentions

Be kind to yourself in 2013. Your canvas is clean. What will you create?

Yes, it’s that time to take inventory about 2012 and make some “resolutions” for 2013. A new year brings an opportunity for change – a clean canvas on which to create a new painting, a new scene, or new adventure. For many reasons, setting absolute goals about exercise and diet are often difficult to sustain for more than a month or two, often leading to disappointment. Instead, you may want to set some “intentions” in motion about how you want to think, act, appreciate, parent, and partner. Intentions are ideas that are not absolute, but serve as guiding principles for ones behavior and actions.

Here are some intentions to consider:

Yourself – Intend to set time for yourself. Time for you quiet, time for activity, time for pursuits you enjoy like reading, hiking, cooking, creating. Carve out this time as an essential part of your week. 

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Your time – Intend to find the balance for spending time on others and spending time for yourself. Be aware of when you are feeling overscheduled and taken advantage of versus when you are doing acts that are meaningful to you.

Your children – Intend to show you children that they are important and matter. Intend to help them find the balance of work, responsibility, and fun. Intend to show them that the kind of person they are is more important than what they produce in school and outside achievements. Intend to listen to them as they often have wise and helpful ideas.

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Your partner/spouse – Intend to appreciate them for what they do for you and in the world.  Remember that you are on the same team, working together for joint goals. Recognize that your partner is also an individual with his or her own ideas and needs. Intend to support your partner’s growth and give them space to do so.

Your friends and family – Whether you have a small or large family, or few or many friends, remember that they are your village – your people. Intend to find time to reach out to them by text, e-mail, phone, coffee, lunch or gatherings. Intend to make time for the people you care about.

Be kind to yourself in 2013. Your canvas is clean. What will you create?

 

Dr. Dan Peters, Ph.D., is co-founder of the Summit Center (http://summitcenter.us/), which provides psychological and educational assessments and counseling for children and adolescents, specializing in the gifted, creative, and twice-exceptional.

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