The start of a new year feels amazing, doesn’t it? It can prompt exuberant, bright, and shiny feelings where everything seems possible, where obstacles of the old can be overtaken by the new. A welcome, clean, fresh start.
Within such high-spirited positivity, great intentions — also known as New Year’s resolutions — are set. And then … whaddya know?
Life gets busy!
The new year churns on through the first weeks of January, and for most, the bright inspiration starts to fade. Many folks simply stop there and get on with life, completely forgetting about their intentions. Others keep trying, but typically around the end of February, the intention that was so upfront has faded to the back burner.
Why does this happen year after year, why can’t we change it, and why are unwanted habits so incredibly hard to break? Understanding this all-too-frequent issue is at the core of how the Weiss Method works.
The Weiss Method interrupts and disconnects unhealthy patterns with an energy-based treatment, working at the root cause of unwanted habits and addictions like alcohol, nicotine, harmful drugs, or refined sugars. (See Journey issues 27 & 28 to explore the Addiction Cycle and how it works.)
Let’s look more at how and why those lovely fresh feelings that grace us every New Year can fade so easily, along with our hope of wanting to make changes. Most likely, we haven’t generated enough ‘gas in the tank’ to accomplish our goal. So where does that fuel come from?
It’s an inside thing…
Rest assured: we have everything we need to achieve what we want. Wait… what?! How does that work, you may ask? If we make a goal or an intention important enough by reasoning through why we want it in an ever-deepening way, we’ll arrive at the core reasons and values that drive us. This type of internal work causes a vortex of energy that gives us the staying power for the longevity of our decision-making process.
Vortex of energy = gas in the tank!
We connect to our inner intelligence by focusing inwardly on our strengths. If the intention is important, it makes sense to help it become a reality by fueling our intention with the best of ourself. High-octane stamina is crucial to our overall well-being and in trusting ourself.
One way to visualize this is to imagine we have a whole cast of characters that developed over our lifetime who live on our ‘bus’. Think of the part of you that loves to help others, then the part that can complain about everything, and the part that’s able to see the silver lining in everything, and so on.
We are not just one thing.
Our hundreds of characters require our leadership to manage them and ensure everyone is working in the same direction. This is what allows for successful navigation of all the warnings and excuses that will inevitably crop up along the way, despite our initial good intentions. When all characters on the bus trust us as their conscientious driver, so much is possible!
This is the best of how we, as humans, are designed to work. We’re each supposed to be driving our bus, and not giving away our power by allowing anyone else to drive it for us.
Only you can make yourself a priority. No one else can do this! When we regularly focus on fixing things starting from inside ourselves because it matters to us, the force of the past doesn’t get a chance to overtake our good intentions.
When we make a reasonable plan to see them through and not let everything or anyone else’s priorities hold us back, we free ourselves to be ourselves. This is the kind of energy that releases us from our past and keeps us going toward our self-chosen future — no matter what.
Remember though… this doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help when you need it to make changes. Sometimes energy comes to us through others, because of their expertise. This is how the Weiss Method works in partnership with a person’s well-reasoned good intentions.