Each year, people all over the world set intentions for themselves for the new year.

Stop smoking, loose weight, don’t be such a push over, make more money, be nicer, find a better job, stop biting my nails, be more confident, you know the list right?

And year in and year out, people fail at living up to these resolutions, then fall into the downward spiral of self judgement, self criticism, hopelessness and helplessness.

New year’s resolutions fail for many reasons.

1. They’re not REALLY what we want.  We choose things we think we should want, or what our ego wants, rather than our deepest heartfelt desires
2. We start doing what psychologists call a ‘discrepancy analysis’ (comparing where we are now, to where we want to be) and feel overwhelmed and dis-empowered, and just give up
3. We are unconscious of our old habits keeping us in old ways of being, and as soon as the shine wears off the declaration of the new years resolution, we slide back into our old ways of being in the world, without understanding what has happened
4. We’re not wording the intention with enough clarity

This year, I propose a new way to think about new years resolutions.

This year, let’s forget about goals and instead consider the following…..

How do you want to feel?

How do you want to be in the world?

What are your deepest heartfelt desires?

Goals are things that you achieve, that you tick off your list, and then you’re done.  Get married, have a great job, drive an awesome car, master the 2nd series Ashtanga Vinyasa sequence, sit in meditation for an hour without moving.

Heartfelt desires are ways of being in the world on a day-by-day, even moment-by-moment basis.

I am free

I love and I value myself

I am open & courageous

I engage in the world with love, truth and ease

And when you’re living your life in accordance with your deepest heartfelt desires, then everything else just falls into place.

In each iRest Yoga Nidra course or workshop I teach, we spend time diving deeply into heartfelt desires.  Asking the question “what do I REALLY want from this life?” and exploring ways to language it and integrate into our lives in a way that is most effective.

On the 2nd of January 2015, I’m teaching an iRest one day retreat in beautiful Byron Bay, and the focus of the retreat is going to be creating clear and meaningful intentions for the new year.

Then we’ll be weaving our heartfelt desires and intentions into the yoga nidra meditation so they really starts working their magic on your life.

I do hope you can join me.