The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

I’d like to align my New Years Resolutions with my three core values that I identified in my self compassion workbook. These are the three things that matter most to me in the world and I want to prioritize them in my every day life.

Core values in the form of vows…

I vow to always do something creative each day, whatever form that might take.

So this means writing or painting. Right now I’ve been working on my poetry book and would like to mostly finish that by the end of the year. As for painting, my goal this year is to overcome my perfectionism surrounding it. Get into a place where I can do it without anxiety. I plan to do this with exposure therapy and daily practice.

I vow to take better care of my body (including my mental health) and love it for what it is.

For my brain I will practice self compassion and coping techniques aimed at calming my amygdala and cortex when I am experiencing anxiety and panic attacks. I want to practice meditation and short breathing exercises as much as I can on a daily basis and take a walk every day with the dog where I practice 30 minutes of mindfulness.

For my body this involves getting into exercise 6 days a week and doing running (4 times) and strength training (twice). Losing 28 pounds and getting that off of my bones (I have osteoarthritis so the lighter I am the better) by eating a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods (good for arthritis) and lower in calories (for weight loss). Also I plan to try and accept my aging figure and show love towards it despite now being middle aged. I want to accept my age with grace and kindness.

I vow to practice kindness in my life towards myself and others

This involves practicing self compassion towards myself and kindness towards others. I tend to be a judgemental person and I want to be more tender towards other people in my thoughts and actions. I am even more judgemental of myself so I want to become less of a perfectionist and more accepting of the learning process and failure and have kindness towards myself when I fail at something.