Welcome to 2022, friends! The "new year, new me" posts are probably already starting to fill up your feed.
We're all for that fresh start feeling, but needing to become someone else? We'll pass.
It's totally possible to engage with the new year without buying into toxic narratives—all it takes is a little reflection.
Mentioned in the episode
Welcome back to Inner Warmup, where your inner work begins. My name is Taylor Elyse Morrison, I'm the creator of inner workout and to you, as always are our expert guest. Thanks for being here and happy new year.
Kicking off this episode first episode of 2022. With an announcement a couple weeks on January 15. I'm hosting our Self-care Support Masterclass, it's two hours live—an opportunity for you to really start 2022 off on a supportive foot. We are talking Five Dimensions of Wellbeing going through Take Care Assessment results, and then helping you map out your self-care support system. For the first part of 2022. I'm really excited to walk through this with you. You can get all the details in the show notes.
Now let's get into our regularly scheduled mindfulness practice. You know, I like to start these episodes with a little way for you to be present with yourself and with your body. Since it's the new year. I want you to give yourself some love. Whether that's giving yourself a hug. Or if you're someone who likes back scratches, that's not really me, but my husband loves them, maybe give yourself a little back scratch. Something to just say, "Hey, I love you and you made it." Because you did. You made it to 2022. And that in and of itself is a huge accomplishment. I don't think I can overstate that enough. The fact that you are here after two of what have been, for me individually, and also what I've seen collectively, some of the hardest, most trying years of my life personally. You should be really proud of yourself for being here. And then you're also here and listening to a podcast like Inner Warmup trying to get to know yourself better. Cheers to you, friend, seriously.
So the question on the table or today's topic for our interview is New Year New fill in the blank. You notice that it doesn't say new year new me. I used to be really into that new year new me.I was all about it. And the older I get, the more I do my own inner work honestly, that concept of new year new me just becomes less and less appealing. And here's why: I am tired of me being sold the idea and other people being sold the idea, especially marginalized folks that we need to change in order to be good, or to be right. Like think about the advertising that you get on any given basis, open up Instagram, and see the ads that you get. And a lot of it is positioned in such a way to say that if you buy this product, or you wear this brand or you buy the service, you are going to become someone else. And that someone else is better than who you are now. Which in itself doesn't sound that bad. But when you peel back the layers even more, a lot of that, who you're supposed to become, according to these advertisers and society. And these companies are someone who better fits into oppressive systems that, I don't know about you, but I'm actively trying to break out of. So there's still a lot of advertising,even after we've had this great reckoning, that's essentially telling me as a Black woman that I should aspire to look more white, and have more Eurocentric beauty standards. There are plenty that tell me as a woman, that I should fit into standards that will make me more attractive and palatable to men. Who cares what I think about how I look and feel in my body. Now, that could be a whole other podcast. There are so many examples of where this is shifting. I'm painting with really broad brushstrokes here. But my core point is that this idea of needing to become someone else doesn't seem like it really serves us. It serves other people who are trying to sell us things that I honestly don't want to buy into. If you want to buy into it, more power to you as long—as you're having that conscious choice that that's what you're buying into. It's a decision that you're making. It's not happening passively cool. If you want that to be your choice, that can totally be your choice.
But I'm personally interested in inner work as this work that brings you back to yourself. That's what I want to buy into. That's what I've quite literally dedicated my life to, is doing my own inner work and supporting other people as they do the same. And that causes me to engage with this new year energy in a new way. I love that the newness the kind of blank slate freshness, that a new year or a new month or even a new day brings. I've just seen myself and I've seen others direct that energy in ways that aren't supportive to us personally and aren't sustainable in the long term. So what I want to offer up for us all to individually and to collectively reflect on is how else might we use this New Year energy? What newness can you invite into 2022? Or whenever you're listening to this episode, that doesn't have the prerequisite of you needing to become a different person? What newness can you invite that says, hey, I want you to become more of who you are a truer, deeper version of who you are, rather than trying to squeeze yourself into an external mold. So maybe it's for you: it's New year, new relationship to your body, not new body, but new relationship to and with your body. Maybe it's New year, new boundaries, or New Year New prioritization of your time. For me, mine is a new year, new appreciation for the value that I provide. You'll probably hear me talking about this more throughout the year, but I've been thinking a lot about my relationship to value both my inherent value as a human who works, who walks on the Earth. Even there, I had a Freudian slip as a human who works. No, as a human who walks on this earth, outside of having to do anything outside of any work. I'm just valuable, but also thinking about the value that I provide in my work. And that's something that I'll probably be doing some inner work around for a while. So I will hand the mic over to you, for you to do your own reflection in real time. What is it for you new year new? What? fill in that blank? And then followed up with why why is that important to you? And maybe you'll you'll have a blink that you fill in and when you ask that why you realize oh, that's coming from someone else. That's okay. You're building awareness and that awareness is valuable. So spend some time with this. New Year. New what? What New Year's newness Are you calling into 2022?
Thanks for taking the time to reflect with me. Another new thing that's happened in the new year is that Spotify now has the option for you to rate on their platform. So if you're listening to this on Spotify, I'd love if you take a moment to rate and review their or honestly wherever you listen, thanks for your time. Thanks for your expertise, and take care.