Editor's note: In this article Charlotte Watts, author of The De-Stress Effect,  looks back over the lessons she's learned in 2014 and shares three New Year Resolutions for 2015 which could benefit your life too... 

Once again, I find myself casting an eye back over the year to check in and feel what resounding residue is left from the year gone by. It’s been an interesting one (are they ever not?) with great shifts felt deep into how I find myself relating to the world around me and the people I meet within it. 

I’ve been teaching, writing and consulting with folks around stress-related issues for nearly fifteen years now and of course I find myself drawn to helping others with the very advice I most need myself. My explorations and practices have had a deep impact and some really tangible quantum shifts, but just coming into the beginning of this year I felt ready to move into a new phase.

This year’s theme has been the recognition and acceptance of the blockages that childhood trauma has left with me. The upshot of this work, alongside a deeper mindfulness practice and greater attention to kindness within my language and dealing with others, has brought me to a new place. I am musing on how we peel back the layers in exactly the pace with which we can process what we find. My nutrition work has given me the resilience to do this and my yoga practice has shown me how to reveal my true nature beneath.

My personal tendencies and habits (samskaras in yoga) are to fill space, to continual distract myself and avoid just being; you may well be able to relate! These are patterns I have long recognised and worked with, but recently something has clicked and all of my previous attention come together to really start to let me see beneath. So, this year my resolutions are about attitude; not doing anything, not changing anything, but a new sense of allowing to give things a chance to settle. Here is my list of the things I intend to do less of to allow those new grooves to embed:

1. Less thinking – my brain is busy, busy, busy and because what I do work-wise is also a large part of who I am, I can justify continually thinking about it when I so often need to be stepping away.  I have started punctuating my day with simple, short mindfulness practices and the relief this brings can only feed back into the kind of contentment that lets my brain rest.

2. Less future planning – I am future-driven and continually striving towards the next plan. So much of my focus on the present is coaxing that monkey-mind from racing ahead without looking at the scenery. This can be highly practical for work, but truly steal from the present and bleed out into my personal life. Clearly delineating my work from leisure and not letting it seep into time with my daughter and in nature or when walking helps anchor me in the present more and more.

3. Less filling spaces – I am truly adept in the art of filling up when I need to be emptying out. Amusingly to me, I am great at de-cluttering physical stuff in my life and prefer minimalism – just not necessarily in my head! Noticing this disparity between my inner and outer worlds is helping guide how I find those quiet, calm head spaces which I actually really crave.

I am feeling quite excited about the expanse that this shift can create – I hope you can factor some ‘less’ into your daily life too.

Charlotte Watts is a high-profile and award-winning nutritional therapist who tutors and lectures on the subject. She appears regularly on TV and has written several books and regularly contributes to the press. She is also an experienced yoga teacher. www.charlottewattshealth.com