A New Year

For weeks now, I’ve been receiving emails and newsletters about the impending New Year. Messages transmitting peoples’ immense desires and wishes for 2014: the potential for starting a clean slate with set goals and resolutions; tips on how to keep and maintain them; habit changing 21 day programs that’ll establish a lifetime of wonderful healthy choices; etc, etc. I’ve glanced over them, trying not to get sucked in by the enthusiasm and propaganda, taking them in with the finest grain of salt. I know that humans, for the most part, have the best of intentions. Excitement kicks in at the thought of starting anew, refreshed by the reset button of a new year upon us. Giddy with enthusiasm and positivity, many people kick their proverbial butts into high gear and start the marathon of a lifetime with a sprint rather than a casual trot. I’ve witnessed it all too often, within my own life and within the context of those friends and family around me, the habitual pattern and results of setting too many lofty goals all at once. The end result? I’ve gleaned that we can all be highly fallible in our choices and actions when resolutions are set and established. Without the enduring and subtle commitment necessary to be at the core foundation of our resolve, we tend to set ourselves up for failure. With this in mind, I’m choosing to continue life as per normal: open to receiving this new year with an open mind and unwavering forward motion.

My life as a teacher and student has me consistently on the lookout for ways to propel my life forward to higher heights of health, wealth, renewal, integrity, generosity and empathy. Human as I am, I fall down (far too often for my own liking). But after the lesson is (hopefully) siphoned, it’s important that I pick myself up and brush myself off (both mentally and figuratively ~ oftentimes with tears and cries of pain), so that I may continue on this amazing life journey, with forgiveness and love in my heart. For this, I need and resolve to move inwards (meditation and journaling are perfect tools in this internal pilgramage). It’s critical that those insights are conceptualized, contextualized and garnered from within, or I will find myself continuing to propagate an unhealthy pattern ~ sometimes leading to destruction of self and relationship. It’s vitally important to remember that I have all the information within my being that I could ever need or want in sustaining a healthy and happy life: I am my most perfect role-model and mentor (Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa aside … RIP). If anything, religion and spirituality (or lack thereof) has taught me this greatest of lessons. Positive momentum in an imperfect world is renewal enough, regardless of the outcome.

For me, this decline from the winter solstice is a time to excavate the deepest bowels of my wisdom, and tap into the intelligence of intuition. Such a challenging task, especially when nigglings and nuances of fear, uncertainty and trepidation get in the way. But I know that my well is full. It’s time to seek clarity at the deepest roots of my core.

Whoa. Looks like 2014 might be a rocky but highly rewarding year of deep channeling and discovery!