It’s 2012. Have you made any resolutions yet? According to my yoga teacher N, yogis do not set resolutions because resolutions take you too far into the future. Yogis set intentions, which are more about the present, about the here and now.

It is January 2nd and like a good yogi, I am going to set an intention. My intention for today and for tomorrow and for the rest of this week is to continue to slow down and savor every moment.

According to Marcia Wieder, Americas Dream Coach, there are four steps to setting an intention:

1. Get clear about something you want and write it down. (Okay, I can do that.  I want to slow down in 2012, not rush, rush, rush.  I will put less on my ‘to do’ list each day. I want to slow down and take more time to enjoy wonderful books like the one I am reading called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”  My intention is to not see the movie, which just premiered last week, until I finish the book. )

2. Share your intention with someone in a way that will supportively hold you accountable to taking action.  (Okay, I can do that.  Dear fellow boomer girls, I want you to comment on this blog post or like me on Facebook@Judi Boomer Girl and ask me every so often if I am slowing down in 2012.  If you have an intention, let me know what your intention is for this moment of the new year. I will try to hold you accountable too.)

3. Do something today to demonstrate your commitment to your intention. (Since I had the day off today, I went to yoga class and had a massage with my favorite massage therapist D.  I felt so relaxed afterwards. Tonight, I am going to make sure to go to bed before midnight – okay, before 11:00 p.m. – okay, before 10:00 p.m. – so I am ready to rise and shine when my alarm wakes me at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning to start my fast-paced life again.  Uh oh! Uh oh! No, no, no – slow down, remember!)

4. Acknowledge that you did what you said you would and then take the next step. (I did a good job of slowing down the last few days of 2011. And I am starting the new year out pretty good these past two days.  Now I need to take that next step like Americas Dream Coach Marcia says.  Can I do it?  Will I continue my slow steps into 2012? )

Yesterday, I was reminded of slowing down when I read Pico Iyer’s “The Joy of Quiet” commentary in The New York Times Week In Review.  Pico quotes from Nicholas Carr’s book “The Shallows,”which says that “The average American spends at least eight and a half hours a day in front of a screen,  in part because the number of hours American adults spent online doubled between 2005 and 2009. (Nicholas’ book was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Wow-o-wow. I must make this an intention for my 2012 reading list.)

Pico continues to say that “The urgency of slowing down – to find the time and space to think – is nothing new…” and adds that “more and more people I know, even if they have no religious commitment, seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or tai chi; these aren’t New Age fads so much as ways to connect with what could be called the wisdom of old age.”

So dear boomer girls, as I step slowly into the new year during my life after 50, I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2012. May you too savor each and every quiet and slow moment this year brings you.

Judi


P.S. – For those of you who read my last blog post of 2011 titled “Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?,” please know that my husband’s gravestone was discovered under a bed of grass that the new cemetery landscapers had mowed by mistake over his plot.  Thank you for your kind words of support.