Another new year has arrived and with it the expectations and overarching themes of “starting over” or “new opportunities.” It’s easy for me to have such good intentions and then quickly allow myself to fall back into relaxed patterns and habits. The last few years instead of selecting resolutions for the new year I have chosen a word to focus on throughout the year.
Two years ago I selected the word “patience” and last year “balance.” Both years I tried to use this word to bring me back during daily meditation sessions in addition to using it at a lens through which I tried to make decisions and choices best for my family. It’s not a perfect science but it definitely helps to ensure I am in the present and think about the intentions behind my actions.
This year, 2018, there are a lot of changes ahead for my family. Specifically we are leaving the home that our children have spent the first 3.5 years of their lives to move 800 miles away from our friends and family. I anticipate this will be a big transition for the girls, my husband and me. This will entail a new school, teachers and friends for the girls and a new job for my husband. For me, it will be the art of balancing the excitement of exploring a new city with recognizing what my family can handle at any given time. For all of us it will also be an adjustment as Sabrina leaves for Brazil, we set new schedules and find a new normal.
Further, I have relaxed quite a bit in some of my routines that I spent so much time creating over the last five years. I have not been meal prepping, exercising with weights, spending time away from my phone or breathing in fresh air nearly as much – a known trigger to keep me mentally in sync. It is time that I take a disciplined approach to ensure that I am the example I strive to be for my girls.
My word for 2018 is “discipline” and not in the aggressive sense of punishment for me or my children but “train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.” (Defined by Google) I want to use this word as a guiding post for how we transition, how I commit to a routine and how I love my girls. That may sound odd to some but what I mean by it is to ensure that I have a disciplined approach to everything so that I can focus the time and attention to the ones who love and need me most.