New Year! Embrace You!
When a new year begins, we often hear of people making their New Year’s resolutions. These usually have something to do with leaving a bad habit the year before behind, dieting, or other goals that very often are tied to our physical appearance. It is less frequent that we hear individuals talking about setting intentions for the new year to improve their emotional and mental health, which will directly enhance their physical health. While it is always important to take care of our body, I want to challenge you to go into the new year with the idea of setting intentions that will focus on your mental well-being and any dreams you have for your future self.
Keeping Promises to Ourselves
Setting intentions can help us keep promises to ourselves. These promises will show that we intend to make commitments to ourselves and our vision. When we keep promises to ourselves, whether small or large, we learn to trust ourselves and, in turn, trust others. Intentions can focus on day-to-day tasks or the long-term goals we have. Whether you plan for each day, or the future, setting these intentions will strengthen your determination to reach for your dreams.
It’s important to point out that setting an intention is not the same as setting a goal. When we set a goal for ourselves, we commit to acting on how we will achieve that goal. When we set an intention, we create a guide. This guide then helps us find the purpose for what we would like to manifest in our lives, which we then put into the world through daily affirmations.
How to Start
Follow these easy steps to set intentions. When we put our minds to something, we can almost always achieve our goals.
- Decide on what you’d like to work towards. Dream big!
- Write your intention down in a journal or on a piece of paper.
- Revisit your vision from time to time and reset it as needed.
- Visualize yourself reaching the goal. If you can dream it, you can do it.
- Once you have achieved the intention you set, celebrate it.
- Keep repeating this process from time to time throughout the year.
Find Your Vision
We are excited to share with you one of our Herren Project Club activities, Find Your Vision. This activity is to create a vision board to build a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams. We encourage you to use this activity to find your vision for the year ahead and to remember to always “Be You!”
Herren Project Clubs is a school-based, evidence-informed prevention and wellness program designed by prevention specialists, clinicians, and school counselors to empower students to live substance-free while creating a peer network in schools. Its goal is to provide tools to strengthen social-emotional learning and coping skills to make healthy choices and live fulfilling lives.
Learn more about Herren Project Clubs and register to start a club at your school.
