With Kate Schroeder, M.Ed, LPC, NCC
A New Year Resolution You Can Keep
January, for many, is considered a time of new beginnings. We come charging into a new year, full of resolutions to lose those few extra pounds that we’ve gained, to be more productive, or to quit smoking. But what often happens, is that after working towards these goals for a short bit of time, we experience a sense of let-down or mild depression, almost like a rebound from the holidays. We feel family tensions and sometimes thinly veiled anger. There is a voice within that seems to be telling us that something just isn’t right.
And before you know it, you’ve already fallen behind in your efforts to “get it together this year”. And the more one drifts, the more anxious or depressed they get, and repeating these unwanted behaviors, as they find themselves back in the same place they were last year. It happens so frequently, this “drift” from New Year resolutions, that there ought to be a name for it, like there is for seasonal affective disorders.
Attempting to change one’s life by behaviorally addressing issues on the surface, such as losing weight, quitting smoking, or being more productive is certainly a noble and valiant effort towards better living. However, attempting to make profound changes in life without addressing the underlying issues at the source of these unwanted problems is like trying to fix a leak in the roof by putting a bucket underneath it. You’ll address the problem, but the water will still flow.
In order for profound changes in life to manifest and be maintained, you have to dig down deep to the root of the causes that you can see at the surface of your life, and address these deeper issues once and for all. This unconscious pain is the reason why you cannot lose the weight or stop smoking or have more energy, and is responsible for your “drifting” away from your resolutions to change. And no matter how hard you work to change these behaviors, without getting to the root of these issues, you will gain the weight back, find yourself with low energy, or smoking again when you are stressed. To get different results, you have to try something different. Why not start your year off on the right foot by committing to your own deep emotional healing, which will clean up all these other issues in the process. Wouldn’t that be quite a different way of doing things?
For information on a 6-week experiential self-exploration class titled, Visual Journaling:
Using Images to Go Deeper Than Words, visit Kate at: http://www.kate schroederlpc.com/store.html. Class starts January 15th, 2015.
You can contact Kate at:
Transformation Counseling, LLC
8084 Watson Road, Suite 226
Saint Louis, MO 63119
(314) 761-5310
kateschroederlpc@gmail.com
www.kateschroederlpc.com