With 2016 coming to a close, most of us are reflecting on the past year; what we accomplished, new things we learned or tried, and people we met and places we went. As 2017 approaches, it’s time to greet the year with a renewed tenacity as we evaluate who we are and want to be, as well as what we want from this new year.
Making a list of new year’s resolutions is a traditional and organized way to put your goals onto paper and hopefully into action. As college women, we aspire to be our strongest and most resilient selves, and the following new year’s resolutions will help you push your potential as a woman and feminist to new limits.
Practice self-love.
Perhaps the most important concept women can learn and practice is how to love ourselves. If we can embrace our individuality, our minds and our bodies with warmth and openness, then we are more likely to spread this love in other aspects of our lives as well.
Why is this important?
We live in a society that puts a vast amount of pressure on how we look, and which looks are deemed more favorable than others. In college where we are surrounded by so many other beautiful women, it can be easy to compare ourselves to others and see flaws. We see this at Cal Poly, where there are higher rates of eating disorders than at other colleges.
Self-love is how we can combat this pressure and negativity. If you can look at yourself and see beauty in your individuality and beauty in the women around you as well, your life becomes less of a competition and more of an experience.
How can I do it?
Self-love can be found in the smallest of actions. It is taking time in every single day to show yourself love and appretiation by treating your mind and body with more respect and kindness. You can do this by taking a relaxing bath with bubbles, wearing something that makes you feel confident, treating yourself with a little extra something at the store that makes you smile, or doing something that makes you feel good inside and out.
Self-love is the act of making time to take care of yourself on every level – mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Take time when you wake up in the morning to ask yourself how you feel – whether it be tired, happy, or nervous – and validate these feelings as you go through your day. Try to be your best self within your abilities of that day and let go of expectations, like, “I have to do this,” or, “I should be like this,” and instead be kind and gentle with yourself and with others.
Start inclusive dialogues.
For feminists, it has always been important to strive to create platforms for all women to speak and voice their opinions. Starting inclusive dialogues among friends or groups at schools where people feel safe and comfortable to speak has become increasingly important.
Why is this important?
As a movement, feminism was not always inclusive and intersectional, which created friction between different feminist groups. It is important to recognize that women of color, or different abilities or religions, etc will have unique issues.
For example, as a middle-class white college student, my experiences will be different from a single mother who is also a college student, or a woman of color who is also a college student. These differences will give us unique life experiences and will effect how we are treated as women and as people, due to the systems of discrimination built into the society we live in. A movement that respects these different issues and works to remedy them together will be stronger.
How can I do it?
Whether you are creating a feminist platform on social media or having a conversation about current issues at school, make sure you are able to include voices and opinions other than your own. We are fortunate enough to live in a country where people have had vastly different experiences and lives, which gives everyone a different yet still valid viewpoint.
Also make sure to check your privilege when talking to other people and recognize just because you don’t agree, doesn’t mean the other person is wrong.
Invite people’s feedback by asking, “What do you think about this?” or, “Why do you feel that way?” There is always more to the story than you think.
Set intentions and be conscious of your decisions.
Setting intentions is an important part of reaching the goals you set for the day, week, and year. Being aware of the limits of your body and mind when trying to reach these goals is vital as well.
Why is this important?
Making new year’s resolutions is a step forward into the new year, but once 2017 actually starts it can be easy to be caught up in old routines and get lost in the large, lofty goals you set for yourself. Therefore, setting daily intentions and goals for your day offers a smaller and more attainable way to successfully meet your new year’s resolutions.
How can I do it?
Say one of your new year’s resolutions is to practice self-love. You can wake up on Jan. 1, 2017 and set the intention of going to the gym to work on taking care of yourself.
Be sure to be conscious of your decisions when making and carrying out your intentions for the day. It can be easy to go to the gym with the intentions of self-love and care, but then fall into old habits and thought patterns, like working-out to fix flaws you see in yourself and compete with who can look the best, instead of working-out to make your body healthy and strong.
Make sure your intentions are coming from a place of love and positivity, and that you are working towards goals that help and don’t hurt yourself. Make intentions that create healthy habits and feelings, and put aside negative people and self-defeating thoughts!
Learn something new.
Make it one of your resolutions to learn something new! It can be something complicated that takes you all year to master, or simply learning a new thing every day.
Why is this important?
As women, we are aware that we will face obstacles in our lives. Some of them are known, such as the wage-gap and sexism in the workforce – and some of them are unknown to us now, which is why it is important to prepare and cultivate experiences so we are ready when we have to face adversity. Making decisions about what we are learning puts us in charge of our education and makes us more confident when we are tackling those obstacles.
As college students as well, we are taking charge of our futures by putting ourselves in an environment that supports our education and we are learning something we are passionate and interested in.
How can I do it?
Take a class at your college that isn’t required, but that you are interested in. You can join a club, read the newspaper, learn to knit, take a community class on how to make soap, read a book about an important historical event, learn the name of a star constellation in the night sky, find out how to change a flat tire, watch a documentary, learn how to cook something from scratch, take a yoga class and learn new poses, learn the name of the tree in your backyard, pick up a few words in another language, or learn to play an instrument. There are so many things to learn, just pick something that inspires you!
Creating new year’s resolutions is a creative way to get excited and organized for the upcoming year. You can make your resolutions adventurous and daring, or simple and structured.
It is a chance to make the new year better than the last one, and a chance to re-think who you want to be.
Whatever you decide on for your new year’s resolutions, it is a chance to grow as a person and spread light and love into the next year.