Vital Force Naturals

I read something the other day that really resonated with me. I’ll not repeat it word for word, but the gist of it was ‘don’t beat yourself up if you’re struggling with keeping to your new years resolutions, starting fresh happens in spring, we’re still in winter.’

I’ve always thought it strange that people want to make huge, sometimes very difficult changes in their lives at the most difficult time of the year – January. It’s surely one of, if not the hardest month? Wet, cold and dark, it feels as if the days never get going. And we’ve just had Christmas with the month run up (two or three for some!) of parties, shopping, eating, drinking, socialising, good will to all men and all that, then bam, on the stroke of midnight it all changes. We’re suddenly, through our hangover and lethargic haze, supposed to be super enthusiatic about getting up super early to get to the gym, give up coffee and wine and chocolate (whaaat??) and eat more salad (whilst scraping the frost off the car)

Nature has no concept of Christmas, or January. To be fair it has no concept of 7am or 7pm, or Tuesday, just that one is in the morning and the other is at night and the other is just another day. Nature knows that for a while yet it’s going to be cold and dark, possibly snow, so don’t start anything too drastic yet. It’s time for nurturing, sleeping, hunkering down and building your resources for the spring, when we can break free and the real new year begins. It’s a time when us humans can plan, think about what we want to achieve, where we want to go, how we want to live. Then, come March (my new year) we can emerge from hibernation, throw off the winter and really get down to what we’re about. The goals might have been set during the winter but now’s the time to implement the action. For me, Spring, when the days get longer, the sun is higher and the buds really start to show, that’s the real new year. That’s when to start new projects, kickstart your health, get out walking, running, cycling. Spring clean the house and throw open the doors and windows, let the old out and the new in. Spring clean your body, cleanse, detox, get outside and soak up the sunshine and fresh air. That’s when your head will be full of fresh ideas and your body will have the energy to carry them out.

I’m all for new beginnings and change, there’d be no progress without it. But there’s a time and a place. Do it when it’s comfortable for you, not just because someone tells you you should. So don’t beat yourself up if you had some Christmas cake with your coffee this afternoon and you didn’t get to the gym yet this week. It’s ok. The new year hasn’t actually started yet 🙂