Cosmic Body Shenanigans Podcast

What Your Body Knows about New Year’s Resolutions

• Amanda Smith • Season 3 • Episode 4

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January goals don’t fail because you’re inconsistent — they fail because January isn’t the time yet.

For Sensitive Bodies, jumping straight into goals before the body is ready creates resistance, burnout, and shame. In this episode of Cosmic Body Shenanigans, Amanda explains why intentions must come before goals, how January is meant to be a listening month, and how to use a simple three-month bridge so execution finally feels supportive instead of forced.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why motivation collapses when timing is ignored


  • The difference between intentions and goals (and why it matters)


  • How to create intentions your body can actually consent to


  • What January, February, and March are each designed for


  • How to move your body without turning movement into pressure


This episode is for sensitive, intuitive, high-capacity humans who are ready to stop fighting their bodies and start working with them.


⏱️ Episode Timestamps 

00:00 Why January goals fail for Sensitive Bodies
00:28 Resistance as body wisdom (not self-sabotage)
01:38 Intentions vs. goals — what most people skip
03:55 How to create an intention (January practice)
07:35 February: turning intention into a gentle goal
10:55 March: execution with consent and momentum
13:40 Movement without hustle in winter
16:45 Signs you’re honoring your body’s timing
19:40 Closing reflection + invitation


🌿 Resources Mentioned

  • Cosmic Body Shenanigans Podcast


  • Body-based intention setting


  • Nervous system–aware productivity


  • Seasonal & cyclical living


Sensitive Bodies don’t need more discipline — they need better timing.


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Watch Cosmic Body Shenanigans Podcast on YouTube!

Check out more from Amanda:
Website: Body Whisper Healing
Instagram: @Amanda.G.Smith
Facebook: Body Whisper Healing
Pinterest: AmandaGSmithBWH
LinkedIn: Amanda (Ritchie) Smith

Take the Gutsy Chick Quiz to find out how your type A, high achieving mindset might be holding you back from healing your chronic health issue: https://gutsychickquiz.com





It's mid January as this episode launches. Did you set new year's resolutions? New year's resolutions fail for sensitive bodies or people who are aligning with cyclic timing because January isn't the time yet. If you've made new year's resolutions that look good on paper, but then felt all sorts of wrong in your body, maybe tight dread. or quiet resistance, you're not broken. You're just skipping a step. You live in a body that responds to cycles, sensitivity, and timing. And when you jump straight into resolution before your body is ready, motivation collapses and shame creeps in. In this episode, I'm gonna show you why sensitive bodies need intention before resolutions, how January is meant to be a listening month, not a pushing one. and how to use a simple three month bridge. So what you commit to actually feels supportive instead of forced. If you wanna stop fighting your body and start working with it, let's get into it. What's an intention? Let's start there. An intention is about orientation. It's about creating space to notice patterns. It's about feeling into what your body needs. It answers the questions, how do I want to relate to this season? And what quality do I want to embody? Intentions are spacious. Your nervous system feels safe when you set an intention and intentions are rooted in feeling. Here's some examples. I intend to move with steadiness. I intend to honor my sensitivity. I intend to create without urgency. Intentions tell the body it's safe to begin. What would you choose if you weren't forcing, pushing, or trying to impress yourself or someone else? When I didn't set intentions and I set goals, I set some pretty audacious goals back in 2020. Uh, January of 2020, I had a power lifting meet and my goal was to qualify for worlds. So I had to lift over 775 pounds total between my three lifts, squat bench and deadlift. Ha! At the meet in January, the very first lift of the day, I was warming up for squats and I felt my back get tweaked. And my coach looked at me and he was like, you're done for the day. You're not lifting. And then not more than a couple of minutes later, they called my name out to go do my first lift on stage and I'm panicking. What do I do? I've set this goal. of making it to worlds and now I'm in pain and I'm going to ignore my body. And I'm just going to go out there on that stage and see what happens. And my coach had no idea that I went out on stage for my first lift. He went to the back of the gym and I did my first lift. And after that, you're supposed to report your next lift and I'm yelling for him. And he was like, what happened? And I was like, I lifted it and I got all lights. Oh, I got two white lights and one red. Right side didn't squat down nearly as deep as that judge needed. So I finished lifting throughout that day and we got to dead lifts at the end of the competition and the last lift of the day, I was within pounds of qualifying for worlds. was dead set on qualifying for worlds. I told my coach, go raise the amount that you had told them. He told them 365 for my last deadlift. I said, know I can do 375. I was running on adrenaline. I had CBD oil rubbed all over my back. Could not feel a thing when it came to pain because I was riding that high. He looked at me and he said, it's your funeral. He went and gave the judges my number, 375. Went on stage. pulled 375 off the floor. was a grind through the last lockout portion of the lift. Put the weight back down on the ground, freaked out. The next day I couldn't walk. January 2020, we're about to go into lockdown. No ability to do physical therapy, no ability to heal myself. And four years later, I was finally able to go back to lifting at a high capacity like a power lifter. Four years. Because I had this intention. And of course, you know, worlds didn't happen in 2020. Nothing happened in 2020. I shifted things. This year, I have gone back to powerlifting and I have done it with intention instead of with a goal. And my intention for my first meet in March is to put my feet on that stage. That's it. Not to put my feet on the podium, but to put my feet on the stage to just say, I'm here. That's it. That's my intention. drastically different than saying in January, I'm gonna go to the Worlds. That's so far from my goal right now. So you can see the difference between setting a goal and physically watching yourself crumble from it and setting an intention and my only goal in March is to stand on that stage, which means I do have to make weight and I do have to have a I'll single it on and I do have to walk out on stage in front of an audience. That's it. That's all I have to do. Put my hands on that bar for a squat. I don't even have to get under the bar. That's my intention right now. It's that simple. It's not, I'm gonna squat that weight. I'm gonna do all of the lifts that day. My coach would love, his goal is nine out of nine lifts. My goal, step on that stage. That's it. That's so simple. It's so drastically different. So what's a goal? I'm sure you know this already. We've used the acronym SMART. If you don't know what that means, go look it up. Let's see, specific, measurable, achievable, relatable and timely. I think I got the R wrong, but go look it up, smart goals. It's specific and measurable, it's demanding. It requires capacity and structure and available energy. Do we have that in January? If you're living in a cyclic time, if you're living with the motivation of the season, then no, this is the quiet time. We're still in dream time. We're still in hibernation. That doesn't mean that we don't move. And I'll get to that. But when goals come before intentions, your body resists, your mind judges you. and motivation disappears. Goals ask for effort, intentions ask for honesty. Have you ever tried to execute something your body never agreed to? If you're a parent, you know this one well. So let's break down these months, January, February, and March. January is intention creation time. It's time for listening and dreaming and letting themes surface. You're watching for patterns. You might look back on the previous year and see the patterns. the patterns that you want to repeat and the patterns that you don't want to repeat. And that creates the formula. In our house, we have a vision board that we do as a family. And there are nine areas that we focus on in this vision board. in January, we're setting intentions for our vision. Those nine areas are the structure or the themes that we stick to. And I'll share them with you now. So much fun. I got this from Kirk Duncan from three elements many, many years ago, phenomenal training, wealth. reputation. Love. Family, health, spirituality, education, accomplishment, just one, and travel. Those are our areas of focus that we use as the themes we assess every year. If you've never done something like that, that might help you with the themes or look back on 2025. What themes do you want to repeat? What themes? do want to let go of? That starts to formulate your intentions in January. You don't need answers yet either. This is about research. It's about watching. It's about discovery in January. It's about awareness. Then from there, you're going to ask your body, what do you need more of this year? What feels nourishing instead of impressive or repressive? Let the answers be simple. It could even be one word. Something that I used to do, and I still love this one. My daughter actually hooked onto it and I love that she did. I would have a word of the year. And in January, I would come up with that word. I've let go of that one, but it's a great way to make a theme for the year in January again. So bliss was one of them. And then I would make, I would find a song that spoke to that word. I don't remember what bliss was, but my daughter came to me this year and she was like, mom, I know what the song of the year is for me. This was last week. And I was like, my gosh. So what I was doing stuck for her, which is really cool to see as a parent. But also when she was like, can I play it for you? I was like, absolutely. She played it. was perfect for her. And I was going, yeah. It was an Imagine Dragons song. I absolutely agreed. It was the theme for her for the year, which might just help her bridge the gap into February, where we build structure. So remember, if it feels heavy, it's not an intention. It's a demand or a goal. I'm gonna invite you to take a breath right now and think of an intention that might be surfacing for you right now. Where are you noticing it's showing up in your body? It's not a logical thing. It's a feeling. Those are very, very different. Something I was taught by Mellissa Seaman several years ago was resonant yes. A resonant yes means that your whole body ignites with a heck yes. It's a full body yes. I can feel it in my toes, yes. This is what we're shooting for. and that might not actually happen in January. but that's where we're headed. It feels so much different than forcing. It feels like clarity. February is the bridge. February is, say that five times fast. February is where we take the intention and we start to ask, how could this take form? It's design time. It's not execution time. We're not there yet. We want to build the structure of our intention. We want to build a foundation that it can grow upon. So it has solid support going into execution. and we want to clarify boundaries. February refines things. It doesn't rush it. We're not there yet. So ask yourself, what would honor the intention and how would that look in real life? Sometimes we need to downsize our intention. Sometimes we need to change the container of our intention. And sometimes we just need to say no so that we have the capacity to do some of the intentions we want. this going back to the family's nine areas, my daughter asked when we first started doing this, aren't these all accomplishments because we have the one at the bottom. So there are three, three and three. And the one at the bottom is accomplishment. And she was like, but aren't they all accomplishments? And I was like, no, accomplishment means like we're, we're achieving this, this thing. And she was like, yeah, but isn't that the goal of all of these? I loved her curiosity. This was, she was probably seven or eight at the time when she asked this and fabulous question. Absolutely fabulous question. It begged the question. are all of these accomplishments and why do we need just this one to say accomplishment? And I told her, when you look at the ones, especially for love, love is kinda, how do you grab onto that one? The intention for love last year for us was, and this is a quote from Cinderella, the live action, have courage and be kind. And the little note that we ended up putting next to it in February, which was when we built our structure around it, was it's better to be kind than right. Something I'm always working on. uh That was how we built the structure. And I asked her, you see that as a goal? Like, is there an achievement that we're gonna celebrate at the end? Or is it just a progression? And she was like, okay. So I see why it's not an accomplishment. So that's where intention takes in and builds into structure. And it doesn't ultimately end up looking like a goal. It's not measurable. That's why it's not a goal. How do you measure being kind on a day-to-day basis? One of the intentions that we set this year that we're still trying to figure out how to structure. And again, that happens in February, so we're not there yet. We're just mulling through the fact that this is the intention that we've set as a family is around sleep. And sleep quantity and sleep quality are the two things that we're thinking might be the structure that we're going for. And we're experimenting with it right now. That's what January's for. So in February, on our little sticky note, we'll write what our structure for achieving that thing, and that's actually our accomplishment goal this year is the sleep one. So it'll be interesting to see how we measure it. But remember, goals are measurable. Intentions aren't. And you don't always have to have this end goal. Did I get kinder throughout last year? And did I let go of being right more often? Absolutely. Was that measurable? No. Do I feel like I'm a kinder person this year? Absolutely. So maybe that was my measure. March. March is execution time. On most of the Northern Hemisphere, March is springtime. March is when all of the plants are starting to pop out of the ground, the trees are starting to leave out, the animals, and this is what happens here in Colorado as we notice that the animals start making babies in March. In Colorado, the leaves and the plants don't start to pop out until April, May? But you know, the animals are our trigger here and they can be your trigger where you're at, but we're harnessing that energy, the natural energy of our surroundings. Now, if you're in the Southern hemisphere, this is trickier because you're going into winter. You're on the hairy edge of fall into winter, which is a time to get quiet. So flip this around. and know that New Year's resolutions, all sorts of bad timing for you in January. But for March, we're harnessing that springtime energy and now we're gonna execute on our plans. We've chosen what goals or intentions we are going to run with. We have structure, we have support. We are resourced to go and execute. That's part of February. You're gonna. plan it out, including resourcing it. Some of our goals, like if you're thinking, I need to lose 10 pounds, you need a gym membership or you need a coach or you need a nutritionist or you need a community to go and work out in. You have to have resources for that. You have to know where you're going. You have to know how to get there. You have to know that you can afford to get there. But march is when we execute without inner warfare, without this dread or this, oh, it doesn't feel right timing thing. When timing's right, action feels like ease, flow, and relief. And that's what we want. That's how you live cyclically. Can you feel the difference between readiness and pressure in your body? Can you distinguish between those two things where resolution feels like, gotta do it. And readiness feels like I can do this. I love it when flow takes over and there's no forcing, there's no need to worry. There's no questioning if I'm being lazy or not. Things just happen. And when you set yourself up for success and you do it with the right timing, that's the beauty. That's the beauty of having a New Year's resolution turn into a success in the next year. I wanna remind you how this works. January is for intention. February is for building the plan and the structure. March is for execution. I'm going to be doing a February episode and a March episode. The February episode will come out right before February and the March episode will come out right before March. And it's just going to be a check-in. How are those intentions blossoming? and a reminder of what you're supposed to do in February and in March. And I'll look back on this episode. When you stop fighting with your body, it starts working with you. That's the goal. So what intentions are you setting in January that we can look at in February and see how the structure is coming along and then look at it in March and see if you're actually executing on it. And then maybe, just maybe, next year in January on this podcast, we'll check in and see how it's going. So choose an intention. In January, you've got two weeks left. Let February shape it and let March move it with ease. For those of you who are in my Discord community, I am going to be dropping a January intention practice. This is a guided meditation. If you're not part of the Discord community, the link is going to be in the show notes. Go check that out and you will be able to get the PDF for that intention meditation, as well as my lovely voice whispering in your ear, how to set the stage to set intentions, how to clear things out from last year. Give your brain and your body a moment to go, what were the patterns that I'm recognizing? And then after, start creating those intentions. Start writing them down. So join me in that Discord community for the January intention audio, as well as the PDF. Hope to see you there.