January has finally come to a close. Gloomy grey days are quickly falling into the perennial history book and we’re propelling forward to brighter, pastel-hued days of spring. But as we bid farewell to January, we’re most likely kissing-off many well-intentioned resolutions that didn’t quite take off.

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Personally, I’ve never shown great affinity to resolutions, instead choosing to reframe the concept as “intentions”. What do I intend for the year ahead and how do I intend to make that happen? And now, as I find myself in a coming-of-age scenario – on the precipice of turning the big 4-0 – those intentions are becoming more…intentional.

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This year, I shifted the focus somewhat controversially. Usually extrinsic, my intentions are more intrinsic as I decipher the next big decade of my life (…22 months to go) and re-establish exactly who I am. I’ve spent years shackled by manacles of guilt and shame over the different people I’ve been, the things I’ve loved, and have gravely misinterpreted them within the yoga sphere.

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I’m a fashion girl through and through. I spent many years of my life as a conceptual pattern designer for fashion textiles and participated in trend forecasting and concept development. I turned my back on this career a while ago. Not because I didn’t love the output but rather the process and environment didn’t fulfil me. I was a nice little guppy fish in a sea full of sharks. And that’s the sad reality. Then there was the moral conflict.

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Many aspects of the fashion industry contribute to immeasurable planetary destruction. If you’ve never worked in the sector, you’ll be blissfully ignorant to many of the delitescent grim realities of what we wear. It’s curdling to think about but, with everything we seem to do as humans these days, it’s how you approach it that counts. We all need to wear clothes, and yoga doesn’t discourage us from caring for ourselves – but in 2025, I think our yogic intentions should call on us to think about how it fits into our lives and our planet.

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Over the last few years, I’ve unfairly lambasted myself over choices made many years ago. Each January, I’ve intended to live with more pious purity and stop exercising so much vanity. Barely buying a thing, sacrificing monthly facials as a conduit for supplication, I thought it would make me feel more virtuous and more connected to the universe around me. But it disconnected me from myself. 

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What was a salutary exercise ended in low self-esteem and a secret loathing of my physical self – something I struggled with in my younger years. After regrouping and taking a long hard look at my own habits and inclinations, I decide to honour who I really am and start looking after myself again. Only, this time, with more intention. Embracing our authentic selves is an act of honesty and truthfulness that underpins our yoga practices – it’s the embodiment of yoga beyond the mat. Because, if we can’t nurture and accommodate who we really are, how could we ever expect to support and serve anyone else?

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So, this year, I’m focusing on less consumption and buying with pure intention. I’m embracing simplicity without denouncing anything. Rather than “reducing” I’m regaining self-respect, adjudicating my own values, and evolving my morality. I’m taking inventory of my mind and delineating what my ego thinks I want against what my soul knows I need. Agnostic and assured, I’m re-evaluating exactly how I can make my inert passions mould to fit the values by which I live my life.

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And I’m exhuming my authenticity. For so long, the exigencies of modern life and the curse of consumerist culture forced me to bury it with an acrid sense of shame and remorse.

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At some point, I can guarantee it’s happened to us all. In the quest for ultimate enlightenment and surrender, we take drastic actions polarised from how we actually want to live. Absolving from this, abandoning that, sacrificing anything and everything to make our existence feel more honest and valid. But we just end up in dire moral conflict as we yearn for the things that make us happy.

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Yoga isn’t about resolution or absolution – and it’s certainly not about rejecting your identity. It gives us starting points to realign our values and live in a way that serves ourselves and the world around us. Be judicious with your intentions and find new purpose in the things you love. You’ll find a way for them to fit into your intentional life -for me, it’s streamlining my wardrobe and reintroducing my passion for nurturement and self-care.

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It's simply who I am.