Stop pressuring yourself with big picture goals and resolutions. Who needs that kind of guilt? Let’s do a zooming in practice instead. It’ll immediately give you a sense of calmness and clarity.

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Hello! Happy, happy new year! Welcome to The Feel Good Factor. I’m Susmitha Veganosaurus. This is a podcast about joy, fulfilment and well being in business, life and creativity. If you enjoy this episode, then sign up for my free newsletter The Feel Good Tribe.

So I’m sure at this stage in the year, the first week of January, everywhere you look, people are talking at you about yearly goals and making resolutions and all kinds of stuff.

I’m not about to do that to you. Promise.

I feel resolutions are a horrible, self torturing, fist-balling, butt clenching concept.

A formula for first pressure, then guilt. No, thank you!

Besides, here in Bangalore, Karnataka (in the southern part of India), we traditionally celebrate New Year at the beginning of spring. Makes more logical sense than the middle of winter, no?

I mean, if you live in the southern hemisphere, like Australia, New Zealand and all, it’s summer in January. So starting a new year then makes at least some sense. But for us northern hemisphere folks, beginning at a time when all you want to do is crawl deeper and deeper inside a fortress of blankets…come on, that just doesn’t make sense!

Anyway, that’s a tangent.

It doesn’t matter when you start a brand new year, you don’t have to resolve to do anything!

Let’s talk about relaxing into something instead, to get instant calmness and clarity.

That got your attention, didn’t it? LOL

Sure, January 1st is symbolically considered a “fresh start” (can you hear the quotes in my voice around “fresh start”?). I’m not saying we should all pretend it doesn’t exist. There’s no need for any denial. But how about a slightly different approach?

For a moment, forget about all those big picture plans and goals. Forget what you want to achieve in 2025. Instead, how about we…

zoom in,

zoom in

and zoom in some more?

Here’s how…

1. What do you want a typical day in your year to look like?

Close your eyes and picture it.

• How do you wake up in the morning? Preferably naturally, gently, without an alarm blasting at you.
• What does your easygoing morning ritual involve? Like, how do you ease into your morning?
• And then, where and upon whom do you bestow your time, energy, attention through the rest of your day?

I’m very intentionally using the word bestow here instead of saying spend. That’s because time, energy, attention…they’re precious and they need to be gifted very discerningly.

• And then, how do you wind down in the evening? Slow down, get out of work mode or active mode, come down to a more restful state.
• Finally, how do you fall asleep? How do you relax, and how gently do you fall asleep?

Remember, we’re talking about what you want a typical day in your year to look like.

So, when you contemplate all these questions, when you visualise these things, do it in a way that’ll make you feel good, alright? Visualise what you want, what you want a typical day to be like. Which means, most of the days in the year. Your normal days should be like this.

And once you visualised all that…

2. Pick one moment in your typical day, one instance.

What are you doing? It can be a really simple and ordinary activity, like…

• Taking the Dyson around your house for a dust bunny, feeding frenzy.
• Peeling a banana, eating that banana.
• Talking on the phone with your mom, your sister, your closest friend.

You know, a very mundane and simple, ordinary act activity.

Or it can be a fulfilling, meaningful, purpose driven task, like…

• Making a mind map for your next project.
• Teaching a class or a workshop.
• Creating a blog post.
• Designing a poster for your brand.
• Mentoring someone who’s come to you for advice.

Anything fulfilling, meaningful, purpose driven.

You can even think of something that you’re doing purely for fun!

• Singing.
• Learning a new language you’ll never use.
• Playing Wordle.
• Reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in that moment or the instance. Just pick one thing that would probably be a part of most of your typical days.

Now, how do you make sure that you’re fully present in this activity? You’re focusing on it with your entire being without distractions? Think about that for a moment.

Visualise yourself being fully present in that moment, that instance, that activity. Now, for the most important bit…how do you feel?

3. In every moment, as you flow through the year, what feelings would you like your moments to be populated with?

I’ll share some of mine with you.

• Ease, flow, fulfilment.
• Sense of oneness and alignment with the entire universe – the universe’s divine plan.
• Delight, curiosity, peace, well being.
• Joyful anticipation.
• Presence – complete presence.
• Love, surrender, trust, gratitude.

So now you think of the feelings you want to feel the most through the year.

When you imagine navigating your year from one good feeling to the next, can you feel your breath slowing, your shoulders relaxing, and various muscles un-clenching, just releasing?

Slow down and expand the little moments and the feelings in your mind. The overwhelm just melts away. Ta da! Magic.

Zooming in like this brings clarity and calmness.
It guides you in the right direction.
It shows you what you truly want instead of what you think you might want.

That totally beats trying to swallow an entire year’s worth of resolutions and expectations at one go, no?! And the best part?

Any time you feel you’re fluttering like a kite without a string, you can pause and practice zooming in for calmness and clarity.

• First, zooming into your typical day.
• Then, zooming further into a moment in the day.
• And finally, zooming even further into what you’re feeling in that moment.

This doesn’t have to be done only at the start of the year. It can be done at any time you choose.

It’ll bring you right back on track to the direction you’re supposed to move in, to where your life is meant to take you, to who you need to be.

That was the New Year episode. I hope it made some sense to you, made you think, gave you things to contemplate about. And just so you know, it’s one of those rare pieces from my newsletter.

Normally, what I share in my newsletter, I don’t share anywhere else.

It’s a very top secret thing that only my Feel Good Tribe, people who’re subscribed to my mailing list, get. But this one, it felt right to put out here on the podcast too. I just feel like more people need to hear this. Especially at the time where we are adding a lot of pressure to ourselves.

So yeah, sign up for my newsletter here.

Thank you so much for listening to The Feel Good Factor, with me, Susmitha Veganosaurus. I’ll talk to you again next week. Take care! Bye!

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and I’m most in my element when I’m teaching, writing, and playing with clay. I believe authenticity and kindness are the keys to world peace. Sign up for myfree newsletterwhere I share conversational emails with stories about Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.“

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