The New Year

Today, I attended my first classes of the second term, after a much needed 3 week holiday in Michigan. The New Year is widely regarded as a time for fresh starts and new beginnings. Our minds are overflowing with resolutions; much like our glasses did with Champagne, on the last night of the previous year. Personally, New Year resolutions have never worked for me. The many discarded gym memberships and torn bags of potato chips that will appear in the coming weeks will be a testament to me not being alone in my resolve. I have never had a gym membership or been partial to salty foods, but you get the point. Here’s the problem: the change of date on a calendar does absolutely nothing to motivate me. Instead, I get motivated at random times, and just run with it (arguably, how I ended up in London). When this happens, and I see results, it motivates me to do more.

Throughout last term, I adopted a few lifestyle changes, that I found beneficial, which is all the motivation I need to keep doing them. As a person with “health nut/hippy bullshit” tendencies, these may sound less than practical. However, these little changes helped me immensely, so I feel like spreading the wealth.

- Oil pulling. You take a tablespoon full of sunflower or sesame oil and swish it around your mouth for twenty minutes in the morning, and spit it out before brushing your teeth. It’s an antibacterial, antifungal, that whitens your teeth and improves gum health, directly related to coronary health. It felt weird at first, but I received validation at my dentist appointment a few weeks ago. It’s a keeper.

- Honey masks. The water here is really harsh, so I went looking for natural remedies to help with irritated and dry skin. I take normal honey and spread it in a thin layer on my face. After 15 minutes, I rinse is off with warm water. It’s so much easier and less of a mess than it sounds, and, for me, it has worked wonders.

- Journaling. Ok, we’re required to do it for my course. But, despite that being my initial motivation, it’s really helpful. I swear I sleep better the nights I take an extra half hour to just write free flow, and shut the notebook.

- Breathe/stretch/dance/meditate. This changes daily, or weekly, but it’s just a general check in with body and breath. It’s grounding and important.

I'll leave you with the lyrics from a wonderful song, "The New Year", by Death Cab for Cutie and one of my favorite pictures from my New Year celebration.

So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance.

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogues bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back.

There'd be no distance that could hold us back

So this is the new year