Reiki Practitioner,Rest & Relaxation Coaching

Well, here we are: 2025. We made it.

I don’t know about you, but more and more in recent years I've been hearing folks use the qualifier “Gregorian new year.” Gregorian refers to a calendar system implemented by Julius Caesar during the Roman empire and remixed a bit by Pope Gregory in 1582. Through forces of colonialism and globalization, today this Roman calendar is ubiquitous across the planet.

Referring to the new year as “Gregorian” is a reminder that this calendar is just that: one calendar, of many. Other significant worldwide new years include Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year) on the first full moon after the winter solstice, astrological new year on the Spring Equinox, Hijri or Islamic New Year in early summer, and Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year in autumn.

But while January 1 is arbitrary, marking any new year can create opportunity for renewal, for reflection on what has been and resolution on what might come.

New years’ resolutions seem to get more of a bad rap every year. I get it. “Resolution” means a firm, purposeful decision–one made with resolve. With this language, there can be a sense of forcing changes. February rolls around and the motivation for renewal evaporates, which can lead to discouragement and disappointment. This can even generate more stagnation, like tires spinning through snow and creating new ice.

And yet in welcoming a new year we face the hunger for change, a longing to release and create anew. Thinking in terms of reflection, contemplation, journaling, gathering, identifying intentions or a word of the year, or creating goals and action plans—all these offer gentler alternatives to the stodgier “resolution.”

Moving into 2025, there is so much in need of change. We are emerging from a 2024 of overwhelm and despair, genocide, war, oligarchy, deepening inequalities, political violence, fracturing social contracts, and disintegrating institutions. 2025 is promising more of the same, with probabilities pointing toward, well…much, much more of the same. We need look no further than our social media and news feeds to witness all the realms where change feels intractable, impossible.

In mid-November 2024, at a breathwork event led by Amy Kuretsky of Constellation Acupuncture, the group was led in a practice of writing down everything weighing on us, spilling our stressors out on paper. We then mapped out these worries from “what I can control” to “what I have absolutely no control over.” A sobering but important distinction, and a vitalizing practice.

We can maintain a mindful eye on all that we cannot control, rather than ignoring or dissociating from it. At the same time, by identifying what we can change and influence, and focusing our life force energy in that direction, we become more available to show up fully for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities in times of great uncertainty.

I am an integrative nurse coach with a graduate degree in integrative health and wellbeing coaching. Coaching is just another word for supporting people in the process of making change. For over ten years I’ve studied and practiced the art and science of behavior change, growth, and expansion.

Here’s what I’ve learned to be critical ingredients for creating meaningful, sustainable change in our lives :

(and not one of them involves guilt, shame, or willpower)

Self-compassion

Self-compassion is often mistakenly confused with weakness, going too easy on ourselves, self-indulgence, even selfishness. The research suggests exactly the opposite. Self-compassion is associated with enhanced resilience, motivation, wellbeing, and capacity to care for and attune to others. There may be no better place to start any effort toward lifestyle change than with growing our self-compassion.

Presence and Relaxation

It seems paradoxical, but accepting what is (not the same as endorsing it, liking it, or agreeing with it), or mindfulness, is a most effective way to make change toward what we would like to be different. Stress is a human response that is highly effective for emergency situations, but generally causes a shutdown or slowdown of higher level cognition. States of relaxation allow us to tap into a much broader and deeper range of our thinking and feeling capacities. Consider times where the answer comes not during the heat of efforting, but in the shower, or drifting off to sleep. Relaxation is a powerful basis for imagining and cultivating new ways of being.

Heartfelt Positive Emotions

True gratitude, love, joy, care and other positive emotions create conditions in our brains and bodies that allow openness, creativity, intuition, and inner wisdom to come to the forefront. Not to be confused with toxic positivity, research suggests that these physiological experiences of heartfelt positivity make meaningful change possible.

We will change this year. The questions are around how? How will we support one another, protect the most vulnerable, protect our rights to rest and imagination, create love and connection locally and globally?

At MIHS, we are with you in the questions, and here to support you with your changes for the year to come.

If you are looking to create routines in 2025 around cultivating care and relaxation, consider our services. Our membership options encourage regular and frequent self-care practices. To find out more about Minnesota Integrative Health Studio services, check out our website. You can book online here. Questions? Feel free to contact us, call (612.345.5648), at or stop by “the studio” on our corner of northeast Minneapolis.