Happy New Year to you!
We are still in the 1st month of the year and you may just still be setting your goals. But since everything starts with an intention, here is why you should set intentions rather than goals and resolutions for 2018! 
As a child, you were told to make a list of goals each new year. What a daunting task this is for anyone and especially a young person. You were made to think hard about what you crave and desire. This comes from a mental place of fear and pressure.
You felt the need to be perfect in the execution of each goal and resolution. These are static, defined and cannot be changed. They make us feel guilty and sad if we do not achieve the exact goal. As you mature and widen in your perspective, you can realize how limiting and negative this is.
If you give yourself the chance to relax into what your whole being would like in the coming year, you can set intentions that come from an expansive and positive place. They come from a place of growth and wideness. 
Rather than a mental formation, an intention comes from your heart space, from your aspirations. It can move throughout the year in various versions while keeping an overarching theme as you proceed towards the idea.
New year intentions are like snowdrops. Once they are planted in your consciousness, they can bloom unexpectedly – like a snowdrop in the snow.
You still have time this month to make some wonderfully empowering intentions for yourself. Just making an intention rather than a resolution is self care.
Have fun doing this. You can then become even more specific in your self care intentions, i.e.:
Meditate each day.
Exercise your body 5 times a week.
Write down something or someone you are grateful for once a day.
Change is speeding by at an ever faster rate. The weather is extreme, people are expressing themselves in extreme and often strange ways. Technology is affecting our mental thinking and social interactions.
Last year was certainly a wild ride. We all experienced the vast changes that surrounded us, both in our personal lives and on a planetary scale. We now need to go forward refreshed and balanced.
Remember, that you have chosen to be here now – at this time and in this place. You are strong, brave and good.
Create your intentions for this year to be truly about your own self care. This way you can also be the best version of yourself for yourself, your loved ones, your community and the world. If you need any help in clarifying your intentions, you can find lots of tools here.
Allow the blessings of 2018 to flow to you in gratitude as the universe manifests your intentions.
Cheers and Be Joyous!
