Now is Not the Time for Resolutions but Letting Go

“The secret to living a happy life is to let go.”

At the stroke of midnight, when the world is dark and explosive lights fill the sky, the ushering in of a new year is done. A welcome for the next season, the next new thing, the next set of new resolutions. Every year’s end, we toast our glasses and write our plans and goals for next year.

But what if it’s not the time?

There is a time for everything. A season to which everything belongs. In the middle of winter and the close of a past chapter is not the time to be setting resolutions. Maybe this has worked for you: new year’s resolutions; and this is great! But for others, it’s a time of high hopes and quick subsequent depression.

If this is you and it doesn’t feel right, even halfway into the month, you may need to consider how now, the new year, January, or even February, is not the time for you to be setting resolutions but letting go. The new thing that you want to do and create is inhibited by the things you are not willing to be cognizant of, let go of, or change. You have not freed yourself for a new resolution.

And this takes time.

Winter is an interesting month. Some love it. Some hate it. It might be even meh in your book. Still, it’s an intriguing natural wonder that exhibits a duality of beauty in cold and death. Morbid? Maybe. But cold and death are needed. Without it, the Earth could not naturally moderate, we would not know the joy of Spring advent, and rest would not be had.

So don’t make a resolution just yet. Release the past year-years.

A release is needed. The suffocation in your chest needs to be lifted. You can only do that by letting go, revoking permission for those things that are holding you down. Feel the emotions and let them pass. The power in letting go is making space for freedom for new: unique creations, fresh starts, and new goals.

So let the things of the past that you need to let go of… bad habits, toxic relationships, self-doubt, fear, financial illiteracy, poor diet, self-sabotage… let it die. Let the burden go. Drop the weight, Bury the dead things and prepare the soil for growth in Spring.