Forget the New Year’s Resolutions - This is Better

These days between Christmas and the New Year often carry a quietness of their own. The pace softens. The usual demands pause.

The season invites us to choose how we begin again.

But resolutions often ask us to change through force. They tend to be outcome-driven and can trigger the same patterns of urgency we are trying to move away from. Behavioural science shows that strict goals activate the parts of the brain associated with monitoring and self-critique, making them harder to sustain when life becomes full again.

Intentions work differently. They orient us toward a direction rather than a demand. They support nervous system safety because they create a sense of possibility rather than pressure.

An intention says, “This is the way I want to move through the world,” not “I must achieve this immediately.” This shift in language changes how the body responds. It loosens tension. It brings us into presence. It allows us to build steadiness through rhythm rather than force.

The Calm Habit was written for moments like this. We often know how we want to feel in the year ahead, but we need patterns that support that feeling to grow.

Micro-practices help us build sustainably. Regular practice allows us to return to calm more quickly, even when the pace increases again in January. They help the body believe the intentions we set, because the nervous system learns through repetition, not through ambition alone.

Intentions help us create sustainable change. Here’s why:

• Intrinsic motivation grows more easily under intentions, making change more sustainable than relying on willpower alone.

• A focus on direction rather than strict outcomes lightens cognitive load, reducing the pressure that often leads to abandoning resolutions.

• Lower expectation creates more nervous system safety, which helps new habits embed through small, repeated cues rather than performance.

Book 2 Of the Climate Calm™ Resilience Series is out now. It offers:

• Fifty micro-practices to help us find the ones that fit different days and states.

• Practices to adapt as our energy and capacity shift.

• Embodied cues help intentions land on a physiological level.

The Calm Habit is here to help these intentions become part of daily life, supporting a calmer, more sustainable rhythm for 2026 and beyond. Treat yourself to a copy now.

This slow December pocket is a gift: drop the resolutions, choose a direction, and let tiny daily cues teach your nervous system a calmer way to live in 2026.