How Mindfulness Can Help You Reach Your Goals in 2023
The demands of modern living value speed and efficiency. We are required to produce as much as possible in as short a period of time as we can manage. It’s not just business, either; even holidays are planned for peak efficiency. How many cities can I visit in x amount of days? How many relaxing activities can I get through during my holiday break? We are a society built on the idea of ‘if you aren’t growing, you’re dying’. What a silly idea, as though we are somehow different than the whole rest of the universe with its ebbs and flows.
Mindfulness has grown in popularity over the last decade because it’s an essential counterweight to the ‘always be closing’ zeitgeist. It’s the compass that orients our drive for progress. If we don’t take time to recognize what’s important then we’re like high performance vehicles, spinning our wheels in the mud. How, though? Mindfulness suffers from association with ‘hippy nonsense’ and ‘pseudoscience’, so it’s discounted by many as a means to help them achieve their goals. To combat this, my article will focus on the verifiable, measurable ways that mindfulness practices can help someone reach their goals. I’ll be looking at the most common New Year’s Resolutions and what mindfulness can do to make them a reality.
Goals: Exercise More; Eat Healthier; Lose Weight
These all fall under the same umbrella and are affected by one another. If you exercise more, you tend to eat better, and consequently lose weight. The way mindfulness helps is by fostering awareness and acceptance, while reducing reactivity.
Awareness of the situation can help us to determine when we’ve had enough to eat, for example. Typically, we should eat to about 70% of capacity instead of always stuffing ourselves. Through awareness – by eating slower and chewing thoroughly – we can know when we’ve had enough. Awareness can also help us recognize the triggers that lead to things like stress eating. If we can recognize that we are coping with unhealthy eating habits, we can break the cycle.
Acceptance helps us realize limitations and opportunities without emotional attachment. Instead of pushing through an injury during workouts, we can accept the reality and work around it to limit downtime. Acceptance can also highlight our deficiencies, making it more likely we’ll ask for help when we need it.
Finally, less reactivity means better decision-making. Instead of responding to stressors in less than optimal ways, mindfulness gives us space to recognize the pitfalls. Studies have shown that mindfulness trains these skills, and this leads to better compliance to exercise regimens and less downtime.
Goal: Spend Less Money
One’s relationship with money is a big determinant in how it’s spent. Especially in the financial field, we hear a lot about a ‘scarcity mindset’ versus ‘abundance mentality.’ Which do you have? How does your relationship with money inform how you spend it? Mindfulness, and the awareness it engenders, defines that relationship. Once we understand and accept it, we can make changes.
Practically, when we are less reactive we make less impulse purchases. When we know what’s importance to us, we can avoid conspicuous consumption. If we can recognize what it is about spending money that’s so alluring, we can decide on better ways to feed that need.
Goal: Spend More Time With People We Care About
If this is one of your New Year’s Resolutions, then presumably these relationships are important to you. The implication is that other things are also demanding your attention. If that’s the case, then it’s a matter of priorities.
Mindfulness can make you a better friend and partner. It makes you a better listener and less reactive to stress and conflict. Awareness of unconscious patterns that get in the way of these relationships may be revealed. It engenders appreciation and gratitude for the people we love, making us want to spend more time with them.
But beyond all of these goals there are two major things mindfulness does.
It helps us understand what’s important.
It helps us to enjoy the journey.
Why do most New Year’s Resolutions fall by the wayside? Starting any new habit is difficult, but more than that I don’t think people really understand what’s important to them. We are so caught up in expectations – our own and others – that we rarely pause to ask ‘why’?
Why do you want to lose weight? Is it because you really care about your health, or is it because you want to look good for someone else? If you know the ‘why’, then the doing is much easier because you’re properly motivated. Why do you think you should spend less money, or more time with others? When you really know what’s important to you, then doing it becomes a joy.
Mindfulness isn’t just a tool to achieve our goals. I think it’s an integral piece of modern living that we’re only now starting to appreciate. And it’s easy! Mindfulness doesn’t have to be sitting cross-legged while someone plays the didgeridoo – it can be dancing, or gardening, or exercising. Mindfulness is just being aware of yourself and the moment. Any activity that gets you out of your head and into the present counts. So if I had to add to the list of goals for 2023, I would include Be More Mindful, I think we would all benefit.
