What’s so New About the New Year??
It so often happens that we yearn for better, different, new existences for ourselves. Rightly, we see the new year as an opportunity to make headway towards them, only we so often find that we have no idea how to get there and we soon head back the way we came in a state of disappointment and uncertainty. Many signs point to this being a year of new patterns and opportunities.
Here are some strategies for realizing real, lasting change in the coming year.
Note: This article turned out much longer than expected, and will likely be reduced and reorganized, but if you can’t get through all of it, take away this much:
We are not bound to misery and monotony. How good things get on this planet or in our lives is not limited by some sort of “positivity/ reality check police force” that many of us seem to have in our minds.
If we can allow ourselves to let go of the habits and beliefs that give birth to such hardships and unpleasantries in life; If we can embrace the idea things can be better, and allow ourselves to envision and become the better way we desire, we will have it. That simple. This year is a year in which we figure out the way to turn ideals and “dreams” that have circulated for centuries into reality. Its a year in which something amazing happens. Make the most of it.
Better Habits
Focus on bright things
If you began to watch your thoughts, you would soon notice how quickly they drifts toward dispute, unhappiness, worry, doubt, hate, and otherwise unproductive realms. If you pictured yourself in a room where the sun shined bright just outside the window and an ugly old spot stood before you on the wall, which do you think you might notice more? The dark spot or the sunshine?
We are not in a good position to eliminate the dark spots in our life when we magnify and concentrate on them too much. When we become apart of, and believe in bigger and brighter things, we easily see how immaterial problems are and knock them out. We must retrain our minds and hearts so they don’t remain stuck in the negative reality we are looking to leave behind.
Stay aware of what you focus on. Find positive, more important things to shift your focus to. Think more about what you want than what you don’t want.
Become Grateful
If you do nothing else, establish an attitude of gratitude for the many things that assist you throughout your days. It’s easy not to notice how fortunate your are, but don’t take so many things for granted. Thank the water you run for your bath. Your heater for keeping you warm. The air in your lungs. Your lungs themselves for working so reliably. Thank your food before you eat it. Thank the person driving your bus, or making your Chipotle. Thank your bed for the rest it provides you, your laptop for the service it gives you. People and things in life like to feel appreciated, they give forth more willingly when we show appreciation. Further, we take better care of things we have respect more, so however you look at it, gratitude means you end with more. It will also make you less inclined to anger and bitterness, and aware of resources you previously didn’t see as available to you.
Reclaim Life.
What’s all the running around for? Who’s running the show here?
“Whose life is it anyway?“
First with school and parents, then with work and children, we spend so many years going along with someone else‘s program, squeezing in what’s important to us on the side, (if were lucky) we forget how we’d like to run ourselves. If you suddenly had a lot of time on your hands, you probably wouldn’t even know what to do with it. You may have forgotten what it is you want. It can take real effort to internally reprogram your train to run on your track.
Your time, your life, your energy are entirely your own. Take time within the next 5 days to form a clear idea of exactly you’d do if it were entirely up to you. What if you no longer had someone else’s demands planning your life for you? What’s best for you? What serves and enriches you most? Incubate a vision of the life that would bring you the most joy, then adapt all external obligations to fit with your program. Let go of what doesn’t fit into your program.
See not lack, but opportunities to create something useful. We are too used to looking at our landscapes, communities, wallets, etc and saying x is not here, we don’t have is. The things that are not there are not there because no one has created them. Now that you have full license to create for yourself and others what you need.
Realize at least one life long goal or dream this year.
The biggest barrier between us and our greatest dreams is usually ourselves. The feeling or belief that our goals are beyond us, or we could never accomplish them translates to failure, or even worse- not trying. We distract ourselves to become
Life’s too precious to spend afraid to pursue the things that will make you happy.
Pick a goal, know in your heart that you can reach it, determine exactly what it will take to full it, lay out a plan with specific steps and timelines for yourself, and resolve to carry out those steps no matter WHAT comes across your path.
Read this book. The 4 hour work week is an excellent guide to letting go of mental limitations and fears to create substantial abundance for yourself and a meaningful life. Its critically acclaimed, about 5 bucks on Amazon, free at your local library, and if you and in the contact us form, we can email you a pdf of the outdated version.
Positively Impact Your Environment
Become a benefit the world you live in.
Chose not to carry blindness, naivete, powerlessness with you into the new year. Chose not to remain oblivious to the consequences of your actions, or the reality around you. Chose to make responsible decisions and be helpful in every way possible.
Bring people together, have meaningful interactions with others. Talk to people to people in the street, on the train, at the coffee shop; be warm. Be human.
Help people. Start caring. Look for opportunities to help others without attachment, judgment, or reward motivating you. There’s plenty of opportunities available in this area and some of them are bound to fit you :-). This is they way problems of humanity will be solved. By people reestablishing a genuine interest in and hope for the welfare of others and themselves.
Resolve to stop putting toxic foods into your body, destructive products on your skin, use destructive materials throughout your life. You control what you buy and use on a continuous basis, that’s no one else’s doing but yours. Its easy to blame “the big companies” for everything or cry “they didn’t tell us, I didn’t know” about things, but its also very lame and does nothing to stop your quality of life from deteriorating. Put your big girl panties on and do what you must to do better.
Have Substance. Keep your promises to yourself and others.
The era we’re in leaves so many of us so spaced out that even the most solid of us can become unreliable. This has to do with the increased distraction mentioned below and how “busy” we feel. Counter this by making a concerted effort to do every single thing you say you will do, whatever it takes. This includes promises made to yourself. This will cut back on the number of empty and unfulfilled statements you make, cause you to have greater faith in your ability to accomplish things (thereby making you more productive) and allow you focus and organize your priorities. You will also become a more real and substantive person.
Optimize your information Diet
Listen to better music, watch more stimulating media, frequent more useful sites.
What you put in has everything to do with what you get out. Mundane information results in mundane thoughts and concerns, results in a mundane, uninspiring life. You can have better.
Find music that makes you feel positive, empowered, happy, connected. Makes you think or gives you a new perspective. A lot of what is popular right now is pretty myopic, you have to feed all parts of yourself.
Spend some time finding new sites that truly stimulate you. There are millions of sites on the internet, how is it that most people frequent the same 5 every day?
Don’t be so approval needy, tech, attached, social media dependent. We fail to realize how much combined time we spend distracted by electronic devices, and more importantly, how much attention that saps from constructive activity we could be engaging in. It’s now clear that many of us are unwittingly addicted and have an unhealthy dependency on the virtual realm, and its no joking matter.
Technology isn’t the enemy, we’re just using it improperly. We’ve got to learn to use technology consciously and responsibly, as opposed to it using us. Electronics did not give birth to us. Life existed fine long before them, what does it say about us that we now feel we can’t even function a day without them?
Live more in the actual than the virtual world. Consider a tech fast of just few days in which you life life with out the interferences of electronics. Try reducing the times you check email, text, and social platforms to 4 times a day.
Try: If someone hit the wrong button tomorrow, all our memories might be gone! They are so digital. Make a physical photo album of key memories and your memories to get more in touch with yourself.
Also, Try drafting papers or reports in Word or Notepad with the Wifi off or even better, outlining your ideas on paper first. See what difference it makes.
Social Media
Keep a purpose in mind each time you log on to a platform; don’t browse mindlessly. Try to do post things that enrich others and improve collective understanding- rather than argue, judge, speculate,
Try making your own original content, or uploading your own things to share. Don’t stay in the habit of always reposting and recycling things others have posted.
Clean up
We now live a large portion of our lives son the internet a lot of our junk is digital too. Its not physicality doesn’t make it any less impeding. save your own stuff delete unneeded messages and posts from the past. Unsubscribe from newsletters you never read.
News & Events You Follow.
It is possible to divert an entire population’s attention away from creating solutions, simply by bombarding and distracting it with talk of problems. This is called drama and it something that pervades our communication channels strongly today. How construct is any one person while they are watching a play? Beware this pitfall. Do not allow your attention to be sucked into this trap in the interest of being “well informed.” Let your quest for awareness
Learn New Things.
Stay Creative
You Have to keep learning to keep growing and improving.
So much information is coming into the forefront about so many things. You can learn to do virtually anything, for free, via the internet. That is a gift that wasn’t available to generations before us. Make as much use of it as you can. Pick a subject area to explore a like astronomy, or coral reefs, or sacred geometry. Learn how to build a cabinet, make an electronic device, grow flowers, make a dress, whatever it is you’re interested in.
Also, seek to know the truth about things. The cat’s finding its way out of the bag on every subject you can think of, and it wont help you to continue living on outdated information. Spend and evening or two watching documentaries and expanding your mind.
Weave opportunities to create and express your imagination into your schedule. Join a painting Meetup or a metalshop class. Help coordinate a project for a volunteer organization. Do new things.
Remember not to worry.
Heal
Take Care of Yourself
Truly appreciate and maintain your body. Take more baths, eat more fresh foods, get more massages, go for more jogs, do more yoga. If moneys an issue see what free resources are available in your area through libraries and communities etc. or get a group of friends together and use tools from the internet to do it yourself.
Learn how to breathe. Start to meditate. Activate your pineal gland. Stop smoking and heavy drinking. It really is time for habits like that to go. Pick one way to improve your diet: cut out preservatives, cut out fake sugars, lessen packaged foods, starches, dairies and meats, or go organic. So many methods for growing food easily in any environment or climate are coming forth now, that blaming your poor health decisions grocery store prices really wont cut it.
To help with your transition, consider completing a cleanse or juicing to give your body and energy levels a nice clean start.
Genuinely Improve Yourself
It doesn’t happen often in this society that we make work to become better people a priority. We’re so encouraged to focus on things around us, others, objects outside ourselves that we frequently forget the most important piece. Us. A better life is not about getting more things. A better world is not about pushing and pulling others. The hidden truth is that the more we change ourselves to become more compassionate, understanding, loving, honest, virtuous, egoless, and complete, the better off the world will be. It’s not until we work on these things for ourselves that we can successfully show others the way.
Take an honest look in the mirror. Bring pen and paper with you. Really look at yourself and your life. Identify aspects of yourself that simply don’t benefit you or others. Everyone has them, so no one should come up short in this search. General vices like hate, anger, fear, doubt, jealousy, carelessness, are obvious, but go more subtle. Dig deeper and see if you can get more specific than that. See if you can figure yourself out. Once you understand yourself, you can determine where your not so pretty parts come from, and you’ll be in a good position to eradicate them. Don’t be scared to let go. You don’t need them.
Don’t judge, panic or degrade yourself for what you find. Be grateful you’re now able to see it and for the chance you now have to improve it. Use this opportunity to become your best! A better you = a better life and a better world and that’s a benefit to everyone, isn’t it? 🙂
Forgive.
Have Tough conversations. Clear up Bad Blood, Engage in open honest communication, Truly Move on from the past.
To get to the new, you can’t keep the old with you.
Decide to stop holding on to things this year. If there are skeletons in your past, grudges within or against you, hurt feelings, feuds, whatever, have the courage to look them in the face and settle them, no matter how hard or tortuous the idea might seen. It takes a lot more courage to fix a disagreement than it does to create one; and the biggest lesson humanity has to learn at the moment is how to solve problems between people. Dislike and blame towards others is so pointless, wastes so much time and emotional energy and so keeps us from moving forward, that its time we abandon rifts all together and evolve.
So whether its a tiff you had with your sibling at 7, blame you hold toward someone who truly hurt you, or you anger at an establishment that oppressed you, lay it all out, be honest about what happened and what it is you want and use wisdom to find a way forward. Then resolve not to let interpersonal issues hang in the air from here on.
Have Substance
Keep your promises to yourself and others The era we’re in so many of us so spaced out that even the most solid of us can become unreliable. This has to do with the increased distraction mentioned above and how “busy” we feel. Counter this by making a concerted effort to do every single thing you say you will do, whatever it takes. This includes promises made to yourself. This will cut back on the number of empty and unfulfilled statements you make, cause you to have greater faith in your ability to accomplish things (thereby making you more productive) and allow you focus and organize your priorities. You will also become a more real and substantive person.
This site will be providing more of the resources needed to help readers transform their lives, from instructional videos to downloadable info, media, and music packs, etc. Were in this together. Stay tuned, and support our Growth.
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