how do you want to feel next year? | bac massage therapy

​How do you want to feel next year?

We have reached the point in the year where all the Christmas prep is done, all the gifts are wrapped and the groceries bought.

It is a time of year where you can sit back and appreciate what the last year has brought us before we turn our sights forwards again to the new year.

Now, in all brutal honesty, I have never been one to set new years resolutions or intentions. Why set myself up for failure and disappointment when I don’t meet my goals?

BUT

I am all for the practice of choosing how I want to feel next year … or more specifically, how I want to feel every single day.

About a year and a half ago now, I was introduced to this idea in a book called The Desire Map (bless you Jane for the recommendation and Danielle Laport for all of your wonderful inspiring work).

As soon as I started reading my copy from the library it struck such a cord with me that I knew I needed to actually get a physical copy of the book. I needed to be able to hold the book in my hands, press it to my heart, and be able to revisit it regularly.

​It felt like Danielle Laporte was speaking directly to me.

The idea is that through a series of exercises you identify your Core Desired Feelings … the feelings that you ultimately want to be the driving force behind all of your choices and actions.
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Once you have identified the feelings that resonate most you then make a list of intentional actions that answer the question …

What do I need to do
​to feel the way I want to feel?

What I found was that rarely were my intentional actions big and unspecific (like typical new years resolutions), but rather things I could easily fit in to my day, week, or month.

So … Where do you start?

First … I highly recommend checking out a copy of the book The Desire Map (either to buy directly from Danielle or from your local Chapters Indigo store or borrow it from your local library or online library ); if that is not possible for you there are lists of possible core desired feelings available online (like this one) … but really these are just to get you thinking … the options are limitless as long as they resonate with you and are how you want to feel.

Second … Once you settle on a couple of Core Desired Feelings (5 or so), sit with them for a bit … post them on your fridge, write them down in your planner … I ended up adding a word to my list about 6 months after I started, and this past fall I actually went back and redid the workbook because I just wasn’t quite feeling some of my words anymore (well really what I was feeling was that rather than being a CDF on their own they were actually ways to feel another CDF completely … nourishment for me is actually about Love rather than 2 separate things I wanted to feel).

Third … Find both little and big intentional actions to include in your life for each of your chosen feelings. This way, no matter what happens during the year you will have succeeded in feeling all your feels!

Forth … Go and live you life to the fullest with actions and choices that make you feel the way you want to feel.

So the question now is … How do you want to feel next year???

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a blessed new year filled with all your feels!

Note: I am not in any way affiliated with Danielle Laporte or the Desire Map website, and I am not being compensated in any way for promoting the book/workbook... it is just an amazing book and program that I think everyone should check out! Also I did ask permission before writing this and including the direct links.