Happy Calm & Balanced New Year

May you know that you are already enough, exactly as you are now

Happy almost 2024, dear Reader. As the New Year beckons with the glittery promise of, well, NEW, you may be busy setting goals and resolutions. After all, if you have ADHD, you are probably in the market for a brand-new, shiny rabbit hole.

Perhaps you are cracking open yet another new journal, buying a new course or two, and determining new ways to attack the same old goals you worked on last year. And the year before that. In fact, since forever. Perhaps you are disheartened with last year’s efforts, feeling like you let yourself down again. As always, new things on the horizon seem shinier and full of the promise that things will finally be different this year. You have new hope.

But before you spiral around the same old loop again, here are five things I’ve been playing with that could make a difference this year.

Get Out of Your Head

When you stop intellectualizing change and instead connect to yourself at a core level, you discover what your mind, body and spirit actually need. You can stop comparing your insides with other people’s outsides. You can tap into your wisdom and self-worth. Then, sustainable change can happen from the inside out.

Practice Mindful Self-Compassion- You are (Already) Enough

Perfectionism stops you from being present to what is. No matter how unhappy you are with the current situation, the point of power is always in the present moment. Stay with what is rather than chasing what if. Facing and owning the messy truth of now is the first step to lasting change. Be firm and deeply compassionate with yourself, like a good parent.

Progress and Process, not Perfection

You are enough. Exactly as you are, in this moment. Know that any other narrative is based on a faulty script.

Balance Comes From Connection

Check-in with yourself and connect with your people to determine what it is that you need to feel balanced. Move your body in nature, talk to a trusted friend, spend time in silence, and meditate. Listen and take aligned action. The answers are within, and whatever the question, balance is always the answer.

There Is No Wagon

Let go of the notion that you are on or off a wagon. Dual thinking - good/bad, right/wrong, and success/fail paves the miserable road to perfectionism. This is the one-way road to your personal hell. It is the path to spiralling out of control and never feeling good enough. Stop measuring, counting and weighing. Be in the present and trust yourself. Breathe.

And, of course, all of these directives are just suggestions, and they take A LOT of practice, too. So, let go of expectations and take baby steps towards listening and trusting.

Everything You Need is Already Inside You

Find the practices that help you create the feeling state that you desire. Build your own toolbox, one that is right for you. So go ahead and sign up for those new courses, crack open that new journal, and determine new approaches to old goals. But do it knowing you are already enough; the answers are within, and there is no wagon to fall from. May 2024 be full of presence and connections, and may perfectionism be last year’s black.