New Year’s resolution

By on January 3rd, 2009

I have plenty of things I'd like to accomplish in 2009, but I'm not framing them in the form of resolutions because I've made a meta-resolution not to make any more resolutions that I won't enjoy keeping. I just don't have time to guilt myself out. So the goals go on my to-do list instead.

I'm just going to make one New Year's resolution this year: I will try to be more embodied, in as many ways as possible. I doubt anyone who knows me would be surprised that I live a lot in my head. My brain, and not my senses, is usually my first point of interaction with the world. I don't see my thinkiness as a problem to be fixed, or a failing to apologize for; but it does mean that I can let myself get sensorily deprived if I'm not careful. It happened a lot when I was working on my Ph.D. I've gotten much better about paying attention to my senses as well as my cerebral cortex, but I think I need reminders every so often.

So, among other ways of being more aware of living in my body, I'm going to try to:

  • continue cooking from scratch, eating less processed stuff, and eating with more attention and pleasure;
  • open my eyes and look around when I walk around town, and take more photographs;
  • listen to music, preferably while knitting with the softest and most visually appealing yarn I can afford;
  • maybe sign up for a few yoga classes at the nearest studio, because when I used to do yoga, it was great for getting me out of my head;
  • visit New London's small art galleries and just stare at what's on the walls, slowly;
  • actually get out to the weekly wine tastings at Thames River downtown;
  • have flowers in the apartment more often;
  • get enough sleep, and pay attention to my dreams whenever I can remember them.

I'd include "wear perfume every day" on the list, but I already do that, thanks to the geniuses at the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. It's kind of a self-indulgent resolution to make, I know, but it's also a way of trying to engage more with the world, and the more I look over the list I've just made, the more connections I see with building community where I am, which is also something I'd really like to do on a larger scale.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions, Reader? What are you trying to do more (or less) of?

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