Setting Intentions for 2022

You may have already set New Year’s resolutions for the year, but have you talked to your kids about setting intentions for 2022? Rather than sticking to hard and fast rules about what you will or won’t do, instead talk with them about the future and what they want it to look like. From there, you can focus on the actions that will shape their future selves.

In the article “Who Are You in 2022?,” Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, AC, points out, ”Who we are, to a large degree, is based on the small, seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day.” Those small daily choices add up to characteristics that can define us. For example, athletes and musicians practice often, day after day, for weeks and months and years. They weren’t recognized as gymnasts or pianists until after they starting putting forth that regular effort to hone their skills.

And the opposite is true, too. If you’re not as organized, fit, thoughtful, or good at sports as you’d like to be, it may be because you haven’t yet made daily choices to support the kinds of traits you’d like to have. The good news is that you can start making those choices - right now!

So sit down with your family and talk about each of your intentions for 2022. These tips from Ms. Campanale can help shape the conversation to choose goals and actions that will help you see success this year:

Focus on the positive. Pick something you’re already good at, and strive to become even better.

Keep your list short. Trying to change too many things can set you up for failure. Choose two or three specific, measurable goals, and focus on those.

Don’t let failure make you quit. Expect setbacks. If you recognize that they’re part of the journey, you’ll anticipate them and will be more willing to start fresh the next day. Remember, working toward your goal some of the time is better than none of the time.

What’s neat about these repeated choices and actions is that your body will actually begin to help you along the way! With repetition, you brain starts to create new pathways, and the more you do something, the deeper and more ingrained those pathways become. Eventually, something you used to work very hard at becomes a habit, and you’ll find yourself getting better and better at it. (Read more about this in Train Your Brain to Ditch Bad Habits and Form New, Better Ones.)

Every day, your brain and body are adapting to the world around you and to the choices you’re making. By setting intentions for 2022 and using these helpful tips as guides, your family can make this your best year yet!

Train Your Brain to Ditch Bad Habits and Form New, Better Ones

Have you ever found yourself driving straight to work on the weekend, when you really meant to go to the store? Your mind learns to do certain things, like drive the same path from home to work, on autopilot to conserve energy. That’s great, unless you’re trying to break a habit that’s not serving you well! It is possible, however, to train your brain to ditch bad habits and form new, better ones.

This ability for your brain to change is called neuroplasticity. The more you act a certain way or perform a certain activity, the stronger the pathway in your brain becomes. Whether you’ve suffered a stroke and are learning how to perform functions again, or you want to stop smoking or get up earlier each day, you have the power to train your brain.

An article in Pathways to Wellness offers these essential steps for rewiring your brain and training it to create new habits:

1. “Observe what the old habit or pathway is doing in your life.
   Look at your feelings, thoughts, and how your body is responding to the habit, and see what results you’re creating in your life. Be the witness, and be aware.

2. Shift your focus.
   This is very important. To create a new neural pathway, you must take the focus off the old habit, and then that old habit will eventually fall away. Don’t pay attention to the doughnuts and cakes. Focus your awareness on wholesome, healthy, delicious foods.

3. Use your imagination.
   You can build new neural pathways not only with new behaviors, but through the imagination. Imagine the new behaviors over and over and over. Keep repeating them in your mind so you build new pathways. Focus your mind and retrain your brain.

4. Interrupt your thoughts and patterns when they arise.
   Say “no” or “cancel” when an old thought or impulse comes in, and say, “I don’t have to do that anymore.” Then turn toward the new neural pathway you’re building and keep on going in the right direction.

5. Use aversion therapy.
   This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s an optional path. I like to call it the “maggots on the chocolate cake” technique. I used to love candies and sweets, and when I stopped eating them, I still had to pass by the candy store in town. I used aversion to train my brain to keep walking: “That’s junk,” I said to myself. “It’s made in factories, is sickeningly sweet, and makes me feel bad. The company makes it so sweet just to addict buyers. I don’t want any of that.” So I talk myself out of it. I’ve used it with many of my clients (only those who say they want it) to help them quit smoking, eating junk food, using cocaine and many other behaviors.

6. Create a specific plan and choose what to do instead.
   When you get specific, it’s easier to build new neural pathways. You “make it official.” Decide that you want to exercise instead of overeating, or that you want to eat fruit instead of candy. Just keep focused on the new choice. You may want to create affirmations and anchors to reinforce your choices. This can be “I’m free,” or “I’m in control.” Reinforce this with energy therapies like Emotional Freedom Technique or other methods.

7. Transform the obstacles.
   Look at what’s in the way. Look at secondary gain— what you’ve been getting out of the old habits or pathways. Look at the stress in your life, and think about how you can handle it differently. Get your mind in the place of possibility. Handle the emotions and thoughts, and get on a new superhighway in your mind.

8. Connect with your higher source for inspiration and support.
   Listen to our guidance. Know you have the Force within you, and therefore you have great power. Meditation creates new pathways and brain changes. Actual studies have been done on the brains of monks to show meditation’s effect on neural circuits of the brain.

9. Transform and make the shift.
   Know that transformation is always possible and that you can create new brain pathways whenever you’re ready to make the shift. When you keep your mind in the “I can do it!” space, you get a clear sense that you’re done with the old and on a new beam now.”

If you like this, you may also enjoy the podcast, It’s a Brain Changer!

Learn more by reading the full article, Train Your Brain, in Pathways to Family Wellness magazine, Issue #44.

Tune in to the Podcast, "What is My Body Letting Me Know?"

In this episode of It’s a Brain Changer, hosts Kelly and Darlene discuss the different ways our bodies talk to us. Sharing stories about their own experiences with pain and what it meant in their lives, they explain how your body tries to get your attention when you’re not listening, such as when stress and emotional pain become physical pain and illness. Tune in to What is My Body Letting Me Know? to learn more.

Then, if you’d like to dig deeper into this topic, as well as get another perspective, tune into the episode, A Different Way to Think About Pain, where Darlene interviews Tyler Orr, LPC, who specializes in pain and other medically unexplained conditions.

If you’re loving podcasts, visit their website for a free download of the guide, How to stop 'sleepwalking' through your life. It gives useful information on how to 'listen' to your subconscious mind, which speaks via emotions, somatic and physiological behaviors, and thoughts to get our attention. Simply enter your name and email address for your free copy of the guide.