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New Year, New What?
It’s mid January, and perhaps there is genuine momentum around change from the new year being rung in so recently, as there can be for some. But often the desire for change heralded by the new year comes from outside influences that fuel a keenly felt pressure to suddenly bring sudden improvement to longstanding issues in yourself and your life. This societal pattern of expecting resolutions themselves to be instigators of change falls into line with modernity’s idea of humans as primarily rational creatures, and the subsequent idea that we can think our way to a transformed life. If I can want it enough, and have enough will power, I will no longer do/say/think/feel x, so the thinking goes. This is certainly true some of the time; noticing what isn’t working in our lives and paying attention to inner desires and dissatisfactions, and taking actionable steps are part of growth. Setting goals in life and in therapy is how we establish focus and direction. However, when we think only in terms of mental activity and changing surface behaviours by sheer will power alone, we miss out on a treasure trove of healing that comes from allowing space for deeper work.