A Note by Samantha Knies Gray
We kicked off the year in my classes talking about intentions as we enter the new year; why, how, and when. I don’t love resolutions — I usually give up after a few days and end up feeling mildly bad about it but not bad enough to kick myself back into gear. Instead, I aim to live an intentional life year round — setting small intentions for myself for each season (or sometimes, each month) rather than big, lofty intentions at the start of the year. I review these intentions often and adapt as I need to.
Picture by Tim Gray Photography
As we came out of the holidays and really settled into the winter season, I set small (but important) attainable intentions for the betterment of my life — and in turn, for the better of my family and community.
My intentions were to (simply put): drag myself out of bed by 5:30 am M-F, be intentional about my diet and alcohol intake, make sure I’m moving and not falling victim to my sofa, and go to bed every night by 10 pm. I do my best work at 10 pm and notoriously dislike early mornings, so those were two ambitious goals for me.
The diet, movement, and alcohol proved to be easier than I anticipated; I quickly picked them up as habits and they’ve stuck. The sleep-wake patterns … not so much. As we close out this month and I reflect on January, I know why those habits didn’t stick. I’m moving the others off my daily list (I write them in my weekly planner as a reminder and check them daily!), and I’ll be more intentional with my sleep-wake patterns until they stick as habits, too. Just like our mat practices, it’s ok to start over and try and try and try again. Eventually, we’ll get there if we keep at it. And you know what? I have a feeling Tim’s out-of-state work trip next week is going to help those sleep habits stick pretty quickly when it’s me managing the family, farm, and work with just two small girls as my helpers. Necessity is the mother of invention — or in this case, intention — after all.