Break your resolution, break your reserve, and jump into life

Alittle tired of the annual features around new year resolutions, we are. Yoda-speak notwithstanding, I watched with nervousness, the reams of stories, material, content churned out advising everybody and their neighbour the how-tos of approaching the new year. Life is difficult enough without adding a laundry load of expectations that need to be scrubbed clean as soon as you slide into the next dimension. In the run-up to the witching hour, when prompted by one friend, another solemnly spilled her new year resolution: “To be Disciplined in all I do… starting with kharcha hisaab! (expenditure and account-keeping). See, that sounds like there isn’t even time to regret past choices — it’s an imperative. Another friend declared her resolve: “Losing 30 lbs”. “However,” she added, “that has been the resolution for the past decade.” Don’t read this one at face value — early onset rheumatism cripples her every effort. But she’s cheerful, and tenacious. Like a bulldog. Social and print media suggests to consumers that they take ‘baby steps’ in order to be successful. Surveys taste what people want to do and offer it back for the gaze of the multitudes. Most of it looks pretty familiar: exercise better, eat better, live better, do better. Or, travel more, read more, learn more, call more — often, that is. Our concerns are subsets of each others’. Then of course, there is the loony fringe who were put on this earth to remind the rest of us earthlings that we are alive. Who jump out of planes at the tail of a 12 metre scrap of nylon fabric, or who push back, push through the darkness to find new goals, new identity, themselves. So. Don’t do a thing. Free yourself of the tyranny of resolution listicles that slimily wrap around your brain with the stench of all the things you didn’t achieve last year. Away with that. I think the thing to do, is to spend the first week, or fortnight, breaking all the usual rules you set for yourself — be kind to yourself, and step out of the invisible drill sergeant duties on a parade ground for one. Rounding the curve of the new year, here’s what I did. I had a glass of something nice, opened a big bag of crisps, perched on the kitchen counter next to my husband, with the dog curled up at my feet — didn’t scold waggedy tail for hoovering up any crumbs. And it was blissful. Thought I wouldn’t go for a walk on January 1 — I did, but that was such a pleasure because I chose to, and not because it was a first gasp of the mustdo-have-to knuckle raps on this crisp January morning. Can’t take the grin off. I recommend you try it too. Burn the lists. And whether you join a yoga class or muay thai, do it because you want to.