Why Your Nervous System Might Not Want a New Year’s Resolution

Welcome 2026. The New Year has arrived and before we jump forward to a new year, let’s slow down and take some time to notice how your mind and body are sitting with the new year.

Take a moment here to relax back into your body in any way that is comfort and accessible to do. Maybe find a cozy chair that supports your body. Maybe lie down or rest on your side. Do whatever your body is asking for in order to receive comfort.

Perhaps find your breath through connecting with the inhales and exhales. No need to control the breath, just allow yourself to soften with the breath. Add in some stretches or movements that your body may need to feel a little more at ease. Then take a moment to ask yourself, “what am I continuing to still digest from last year?" what is not sitting well with me and still needs my attention and care?” Try to allow yourself to honestly reflect without trying to make sense of it or do anything with it. No need to grasp, just letting what comes to you come.

Grab a journal and write down any reflections. Again, try not to feel like you need to process it right now or make sense of it, can you just let your body communicate to you what it still is sitting with. Your only job here is to notice and be with it.

As you move forward with the New year…it does not have to mean new you. What if new year is still….well you? Before we go there, lets take a moment to better understand where this idea of resolutions and visions boards and goals for the new year come from. New Years resolutions can be dated back as far as 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. During those times there was a Akitu festival that the Babylonians would honor their gods by pledging to pay back their debts and borrowed items in order to ensure favor from the gods for the following year. The Romans followed a similar tradition in honoring their god Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions. This all began to shift in the 19th and 20th centuries with Christian values and shifts in culture towards self-improvement and introspection.

So why January?? Before 46BC, the ancient Romans also celebrated new year in March. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar introduced the new calendar year of January 1 that the “new year” was changed from March to January. The January date linked the new year to the Roman god, Janus, who had two faces — one looking forward and one looking back — which made him the perfect deity for transitioning from the old to the new.

If we take a step back and take in all this information then we can see that January 1 holds no real significance in making resolutions/goals any more powerful, then lets say March 1. It was just a name decided by a human who wanted to start the date in correlation to a God. It has not real connection to the seasons, nature, and/or how our internal energy actually moves in the world.

Another trendy idea thats gotten more popular over the years is instead of new years resolutions, do a vision board instead. Connected with the law of attraction (what you put into the universe you get back- popularized by The Secret and Oprah), there is thought that if you use visuals to put on paper what you want your year to look and feel like, you can manifest this into being.

There has been research done on the power of attraction to see if this actually works. Does envisioning actually help make goals a reality? Neil Farber writes in Psychology Today of some experiments on this theme:

“Experiment #1 (from Pham and Taylor at the University of California). Three groups of students: Group 1 (Secret group – my label, not from the study): Students were asked to spend a few moments each day visualizing with a clear image how great it would feel to make a high grade on an important midterm exam that would take place in a few days time. Group 2: Students were asked to spend a few minutes each day visualizing when, where, and how they intended to study. Group 3: Control group of students not asked to visualize doing especially well on the exams.

Students visualizing being A students (Group 1), studied less and made lower grades on the exam. They felt better about themselves but achieved less. Students visualizing studying, prepared better, studied more, scored higher grades, and were less stressed.”

We can see here that it’s less about “thinking” something can happen by picturing it, but being really clear about the actions you need to take to get there. There is clarity behind the vision, less driven on fate and crossing your fingers that it will happen.

Stop here and pause. What do you really need to help support you as you move through January and this new year? What will help you feel grounding, supported, and stable? Notice what different parts within you may need and see if you can take one step to honor that.