Why your New Year’s resolutions fail – up till now.

By Sarah J. Bird -

If you’ve been blighted by broken resolutions in the past, it needn’t be like that in the future.

As January 1st hurtles towards us, thoughts inevitably turn towards those New Year resolutions that will see us give up smoking, lose weight, learn a new language, cut down on drink and a whole host of other very noble aspirations.

The reality, however, is that over 90% of resolutions will have gone up in smoke within the first seven days, and less than 5% of people will go on to make lasting and permanent changes in their lives.

One of the most common resolutions made and broken is getting fit. We join the gym, starting off the New Year with good intentions, but by February most of us are back in our old patterns. Intentions and money blown!

If you ask people why they haven’t succeeded, you tend to come up with the same stock responses time and time again: “I just don’t have the willpower”; “I’m too busy to carry out my plans”; or even more depressing – “I couldn’t be bothered after the first few days”.

For many people, it is a given that their resolutions were doomed from the very beginning due to the level of self-doubt that accompanied them. In many cases, that doubt arises from previous failures which have set up an unconscious expectation for ‘more of the same’. These thoughts are like the viruses that run in your computer, not seen until they crash the system.

This fear of failure (or sometimes fear of success) is like any other fear or phobia in that it is a learnt response. Sometimes this can be a reaction to external sources such as parents, friends or loved ones telling us that “you’re no good, you’ll never give up cigarettes, you’ve no willpower etc.”

In other cases, the messages may be internally generated – we generate our own sabotaging messages, even as we’re starting out on our resolution journey.

The bottom line, however, is that this level of self-doubt is having a genuinely restrictive effect on how we live our lives, condemning us to lifestyles which are unhappy, unhealthy and maybe even dangerous.

Thankfully, however, help is at hand in a number of simple interventions that come under the broad heading of Energy Psychology. Energy Psychology interventions work with the body’s natural energies to shift the chemical patterns in the brain that maintain unwanted habits, inappropriate emotional responses and self-limiting ways of thinking.

Through the medium of Energy Psychology, you can change your beliefs, thoughts and patterns of negative behaviour. You can take back control of your life!

Two of the most powerful and common techniques of Energy Psychology are known as TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). TAT is based on the acupuncture techniques of traditional Chinese medicine and helps remove the blocks to our energy system that cause conditions such as phobia, post-traumatic stress, panic – and even allergies.

This is done by holding acupoints and head areas related to the brain’s vision centres while you focus on your problem. The energetic/emotional charge that has been held in place is removed from the past event, allowing integration of that thought, creating harmony, peace and a sense of unity and connectedness.

EFT, on the other hand, removes negative and harmful beliefs about ability levels, removing the toxic stigma of past failures. It taps in directly to the self-image, eliminating any negative self-beliefs and strengthening the positive ones.

It involves holding a disturbing memory or emotion in mind and simultaneously using the fingers to tap on a series of 12 acupoints on the body. The science behind EFT is that when a negative experience occurs, negative emotions are felt and the body’s energy system gets disrupted, which leads to inappropriate programming inside the body.

In order to remove the negative responses, you tap into the energy system using specific cognitive statements relating to the issue. This releases the problem and brings the body’s energy field into balance.

But whatever the treatment you opt for, it’s important to realise that you can change your belief system and you can change your life.

And don’t forget that resolutions should be about the positive as well as the negative. So rather than giving up something for the New Year, why not take up something that will challenge you, stimulate you, help you grow as a person and bring untold happiness for many years to come?

Go on – you know you’re worth it!

Sarah Bird is a leading practitioner of Energy Psychology and practices both in Ireland and internationally. She specialises in working with stress management and trauma, including fears, phobias, panic attacks. She helps athletes to develop the mindset required for peak performance. Her humanitarian work has taken her to Pakistan and Kashmir, and she also works with soldiers and their families dealing with Combat Trauma and PTSD. She can be contacted by phone at +353 (0)87-2193343, by email at sarah@sarahbird.ie or through her website at http://www.sarahbird.ie