Traditions, just like life changes often happen through timing and often happy accidents. What makes a challenge into a tradition comes down to determination but also embracing change when it happens. Case in point: when the New York Times announced a fireworks ban in 1907, people were as outraged as the Times staff themselves. For years people would flock to Times Square (so named after the New York Times’ new skyscraper) to celebrate the turn of the year with a dramatic fireworks show. Not to be outdone, the owner of the newspaper Adolph Ochs commissioned a metalworker and Ukrainian immigrant called Jacob Star to create a lighted 7 ton ball of iron and wood from the flagpole at the top of the building. The work was completed, the ball descended, and 1908 began with a new tradition still going strong well over a century later.
Then, as now, in that moment we count down and say goodbye to the fears and failings of the last year and embrace the resolutions and promises of the new.
Setting and Struggling with Resolutions
Resolutions are hard, and that’s often why we fail at them. Last year for me I made a promise to myself not just to take time to myself mentally, but also physically. When I was younger, I grew up in a very cosmopolitan city called Bangalore that had access and facilities for everything from skating to swimming and even track and field and I made use of all of them! I had always been gifted athletically, proudly bringing home medals from elementary through high to show my smiling mother. Later I placed in nationals in India as a level long jumper and beyond the thrill and challenge of pushing myself physically, I found a deep, comfortable happiness while enjoying the outdoors. My parents supported and encouraged me always, but back then there weren’t a lot of opportunities to pursue sports for women. By high school, that love and thrill of the wind in my air as I always tried to be my personal best was replaced with grades and career choices.
Rediscovering Joy in the Outdoors and Athletics
Over the past several years post-COVID, I found myself not just making a commitment to fitness goals, but also to reconnect with the childish joy I found in the outdoors and athletics. Over the years I would take time to go for hikes or go to the gym, but it wasn’t a solid routine…it wasn’t a priority and moreover, as we age we often doubt what’s possible. We all make promises to our “best selves” in the New Year, but we often fail because we do too much, too soon and burn out in the process. Start small like I did, enjoy that hike or that walk but make it a routine. We started ours with Sunday mornings, going for walks, bike rides, or pickleball with friends and/or family so it’s not just fitness, it's time for us to share, to bond, to laugh and just enjoy each other’s company.
Embracing Challenges: The Century Bike Ride
Months into this new routine as April drew closer, friends began excitedly talking about doing a Century Bike Ride, an 8 hour intense ride that is as physically challenging as it is daunting. I’d done up to 4 hour rides before, but never anything like this. When being pressured, I’d laugh it off, after all how could I do that at 48?! Nonetheless, eventually my friends won and my husband Guy and I woke up at the crack of dawn and headed out to meet this challenge. Once we started pedaling, my anxiety and fear melted away and to my surprise I wasn’t just doing it, I was enjoying it. I felt that same effortless joy, of finding not just your wind, but the confidence of being in tune with your body, mind and soul. 8 hours later, we finished…tired but elated and it was the most satisfying soul-fulfilling day I experienced last year.
We all make excuses and there are many, but at the end of the day the only thing in the way of our promise to ourselves at the stroke of midnight as the calendar turns is us. It’s not just “mind over body”, it’s “mind and soul in tune with body”. For me, spirituality is about being open to not just new experiences, but reconnecting with old ones…silencing our inner doubting voice, while flushing away negativity and fears and pains. It’s a balance I wanted to bring not just to my personal life, but my business life, and help other women find themselves again as I did not too long ago.
A Year of Fulfillment and Personal Growth
Let 2024 be the year you don’t unintentionally lie to yourself. Let this year be the year you reconnect with the purest part of you, still out there that wants to run, to laugh and to walk with you in this life.
Wishing you a year of fulfillment, personal growth and the happiest of New Year’s,
Priyanka Swamy
