Alaska Behavioral Health's lead clinician Kiana Carr suggests setting intentions instead of resolutions for the New Year. This approach offers more flexibility and focuses on values, promoting long-term success compared to rigid resolutions that can lead to discouragement.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Many Americans set New Years resolutions each year, but many do not follow through on them or give up entirely.Kiana Carr, a lead clinician with Alaska Behavioral Health, said it’s better to set intentions rather than a resolution.
“What can happen with setting resolutions is we get pretty rigid on what the resolution is,” Carr explained. “So you might have a resolution that says, I’m going to exercise four days a week, and then life happens and maybe all of a sudden you’re now only able to exercise two days a week.”That’s in part due to the resolution becoming connected to our identity. “As soon as we don’t start hitting these markers that we’ve established in our head, it starts to chip away at that identity and we start feeling bad about ourselves,” said Carr, who added that’s not the intent behind the resolution. “The idea behind setting an intention — versus a resolution — is an intention is based around your values.” If someone wants to become healthier or get out more, setting a rigid goal can get in the way of follow through, she explained.Instead, setting in intention over a resolution allows people to remove the rigidity of the goal while maintaining the purpose of the change. “We’re wanting to kind of like scale it back, you know, set some goals for yourself that are more achievable and that you have psychological flexibility around those goals. So when life happens, it’s okay, we can like go easy on our self, allow life to happen, readjust your goal.” To follow through on changes planned for the new year, Carr recommends, “do kind of a monthly check-in with myself, or maybe with a supportive person in my life, where we’ll check in at the end of the month, like this is what my goal was for the month.” She added that resolutions or goals for the new year aren’t something that everyone should do, but something that only we can decide to do as individuals.Kipnuk man receives longest sentence in Alaska’s history for sexual assault, abuseChild dies in Juneau car crash on Christmas EveOfficer-involved shooting in Fairbanks leaves one dead, one injured on New Year’s Day
New Year's Resolutions Intentions Goal Setting Mental Health Well-Being
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