January: New Beginnings
Posted January 8, 2024
Happy New Year! If you are reading this in hopes that we are on the bandwagon of New Year, New You vibes, you are in luck! Our theme for January is 'New Beginnings.' We are ready to ride the momentum of all those New Year's Resolutions and give you lots of classes and content that will support the positive changes you want to make so that they are sustainable and, most importantly, enjoyable!
This year in particular I am feeling a renewed sense of excitement for taking care of my physical and mental health. It’s not because I am feeling my best and already in super great shape. It’s because in 2023, I got sick too often and the last several years since the pandemic were really trying for me physically and mentally. And now, it feels like there is just enough space to focus on repair and healing. As I start this process, I want to bring you all along with me as I return to practices that have been tried and true for me for years!
There is a process that I always follow and I wanted to make that process more accessible to everyone. The magic is that once you learn this process, you always have it! Whenever you fall off of your routine, you have an easy way to just jump back in and you know it works!
I am calling the process RESET and it will be a 40 day challenge starting on January 22nd through March 1st. While it’s not a huge time commitment, I wanted to give you time to digest the idea of joining. The best part? It’s FREE. The other best part, everything is better in the community AND it won’t take a lot of your time!
I am starting the year by getting a little more personal. If you don’t know me, I am Jessa Messina, the Founder of YoJo. I have devoted my career to personal and corporate wellness, and I myself burned out with work. Granted, we all lived through a pandemic and seemingly never ending “unprecedented times.” But the point is that even working in the wellness industry, sometimes we are not well. We all have setbacks in life or hard times.
For me, the rate that YoJo grew ran me down. Now that I am able to delegate more, I have a little time and space to really refill my cup. Practicing yoga and meditation and living mindfully has taught me to pick myself back up over and over again. I have resilience that I can tap into when I fall down.
Part of resilience is, of course, ‘mental toughness,’ but the other part is just a really great strategy. Resilience also has to do with knowing the actions you need to take to get yourself going again. It’s about making resilience a verb.
I want to share that method with you so that when you’re feeling run down and ready to pick yourself up, you know just what to do!
PART 1: Discharge Stagnant Energy
Before you even begin your healing journey, you need to let go of what is weighing you down. The real trick? Give yourself time to rest BEFORE starting all those new habits. When you reach rock bottom, stay there and take a nap. Practically, what this looks like is allowing yourself some time that is dedicated to active rest before your reset begins. Healing is a lot of work. Good habits like waking up early, exercising more, or eating healthy take energy; so give yourself a moment to really recharge. If you want the work to work, don’t force it - and don’t start when you’re exhausted.
This could mean going to bed earlier, getting acupuncture or a massage, taking more baths, having down time, and watching your favorite movies or reading your favorite books.
PART 2: Disrupt Old Patterns
The body loves what is familiar so this is a really tricky part. We don’t always do what is good for us or even what we like, but we do what we are most familiar with because our brain will crave what it effortlessly knows how to do.
In order to break the addiction to the familiar, we have to create some excitement and pleasure around the new activity. Ensure that the new change is something realistic. For instance, if you want to disrupt your pattern of sleeping in and you want to start waking up early, create a new positive reward for waking up early. Maybe this includes getting your favorite coffee or watching the sunrise.
Either way, the change should have some pleasure attached to it and not be too overwhelming. It’s also good to make the considerations for what will make the transition go more smoothly. Do you need to go to bed earlier? Do you need to have a better wind down routine at night? Do you need a louder alarm in the morning?
PART 3: Build a New Foundation
Now that you’ve made the change, you are in the period of tweaking the routine. This is the time where you will see what is and isn’t working. Are you successfully waking up early? How often? When you are succeeding, what are you doing differently?
Don’t expect to get it right right away. We are all different and have slightly different needs. All too often, there is a one size fits all method distributed which is why so many people feel defeated.
It’s more challenging (but more authentic), and ultimately more worthwhile to treat your new habits like an experiment, and build your routine over time.
PART 4: Create a New Familiar
After about 40 days of building a new foundation, you should now have a recipe that works! If not, it’s ok. Take your time to get there, but just make sure that you’re staying focused on really observing what is working. If it’s not working because you’re still burnt out, go back to part 1 and focus on discharging stagnant energy through rest for longer.
Once you’ve made it through part 3, you are in the maintenance phase. This lasts longer than you think. The first stage of the maintenance phase is for the next 50 days. You will start to feel greater benefits from your hard work and more ease in showing up for the new habits you’ve integrated. That is wonderful! Remember that building a new familiar takes nurturing and consistency. Make sure that as you build your weekly calendar during this time period that you are still prioritizing your new habits. You haven’t yet cemented the changes. Your brain takes 90 days to really integrate new habits and build the neural pathways, so be thoughtful in not disrupting the process of letting your brain build a new familiar!
Want a chance to bring these steps to life? Join our FREE challenge called RESET starting on January 22nd. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to join, and follow us on Instagram @YoJoYoga!