Many of us are sensing something “more” in the air; for some, it is a discomfort. We are moving into yet another New Reality of Being/Living. It’s high time to throw out the “rule book” and begin making our own path of least resistance that we can finally feel safe and comfortable in our skin (where prosperity reigns)! So many of us as Lightworkers, are so highly sensitive taking on other people’s “stuff” as we have seen so much injustice around us, forgetting to spin off the lower frequency energies. What do we do with all of this? Remain in your own light (your New Rule Book). I would like to share a message from another healer, Bernadette Williams, who shares a very similar reality. Please read below is what we both impart you now.
For centuries, people have been observing the end of one year and the beginning of another. Just about every religion and ancient culture has some form of New Year’s resolutions. We call it January because, at the dawn of each Gregorian year, the ancient Romans made promises of self-improvement to Janus, their god of beginnings and passages.
During the Jewish New Year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, going through the High Holidays and ending in Yom Kippur, Jews reflect on their failings and wrongdoings during the past year, and then resolve to seek forgiveness, as well as offering their forgiveness to others.
Catholics and Anglicans have Midnight Mass, designed to help believers resolve to make their new year a more spiritual one than before, and they prepare for the year ahead by reflection, prayer and making resolutions.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, started their watchnight services in 1740, not only to offer an alternative to the typical drunken revelry on New Year’s Eve, but to sing hymns, read from scripture and resolve to lead a more spiritual life in the year ahead.
Most people desire to be better and New Year’s resolutions are one way to make the desire reality. They come in many forms, shapes and sizes. Some of the most popular are the fitness related: eating healthy and loosing weight, joining a gym, committing to walking everyday, etc. And there are the relationship related resolutions: to fall in love, spend time with family, have children. There are the resolutions that aim to improve our professional lives and those geared to enhancing our quality of life. Any one of these resolutions can better one’s physical, emotional, and intellectual attributes. But what about spiritual resolutions—those that get to the deepest level of our being and have the most profound effect on our overall existence?
The best resolutions are elastic—they cannot be broken with a single act. If you swear never to eat sweets, one donut ruins the resolution. If, on the other hand, you pledge to meditate regularly, each day you have a chance to fulfill the resolution anew. I offer you some elastic spiritual resolutions–small practices that can have big impacts.
Begin each day with a prayer of gratitude for your life. Take a few minutes to meditate on the fact that no matter how chaotic the outside world may get, you will always have the peaceful serenity of your home. Resolve to practice a period of meditation every day – it doesn’t have to be long or involved, but it has to be a consistent practice of being alone to reflect on your thoughts and feelings, particularly reminding yourself of all the things, people, ideas that you are grateful for.
Increase your kindness. If you wish to feel kind, do something good. The great secret of moral growth is that it often begins from the outside. Behave generously even when you do not feel like it and the habit will grow as will your innate quality of kindness. The act can be small or large; it can be a charitable contribution or a gentle word or help with a heavy bag on an airplane. Commit to a goal of service to others, helping to make at least one human life better next year than it was this year. Do something significant this year toward the goal of peace in the world, even if it is just a small volunteer commitment in your community or a new attitude about dealing with conflicts in a peaceful way. Don’t just tell, but actively show love to your entire family — the human family. “In a world where you can be anything, be kind!”
Deepen Your Spiritual Commitment. For those of you who have a regular spiritual practice, make it a resolution this year to go deeper, whatever that means for you. Education is essential. Studying spirituality makes you more spiritual. Committing to daily, weekly, or monthly spiritual study is a huge resolution, and one that will have revolutionary results. People tend to explore the parts of themselves that they are comfortable with and avoid other aspects of their inner spiritual work. Find places within yourself that you haven’t explored. There are all kinds of ways to grow and to deepen one’s commitment to their spiritual path. It usually means attending to the places where we are weak and under-developed. For some, this may simply take reading one inspiring sentence each day. For others, it may require the help of a spiritual teacher. For the long-time student, it may be time to go deeper with the teacher you have, find another one, or learn to listen to your inner teacher on your own. Whatever this deepening of commitment might be, you know what it is—trust your own knowing!
Keep a clean slate! You had a hard day. Say you got dirt on your hands. Would you go to bed without washing it off? The same is true with the emotional and spiritual dirt. If you hurt someone during the day, wash that dirt off before you go to bed by apologizing to the person and making amends. Or, if someone wronged you, forgive that person before you retire for the night. Going to bed with a heavy heart will only make the bed creak.
Pay attention to your last thought of the day! What is the last thing you think about before you fall asleep? That may very well be the first thing you feel when you wake up. Think bright thoughts when you go to bed and your morning will be full of sunshine!
Be Here Now! You are already here now. Congrats! However, we sure let our minds wander off a lot: either wandering around in the past, or anticipating (usually with some form of anxiety) the future. As such, resolve this year to make it a practice from time to time throughout your day to draw your attention to the present moment and to let go of thoughts about the future and the past. The minute you notice that you’ve wandered off into a mental fantasy land, you’ve already returned your attention to the present moment. That noticing is your awareness, and your awareness lives in the present moment. As Einstein is famous for saying, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” We must be in the present moment, not the moment when the problem was created—the past!
Seek Out and Confront a Core Issue. Core issues are part of what we unconsciously believe about ourselves in the most fundamental ways. They include self-hatred/lack of self-love, abandonment issues, fear of the unknown, scarcity fears, gender identities, sexual identities, trauma, and many others. At the center of many core issues is the belief that “you are not good enough.” When people believe that they are not okay, then they need validation, awards, attractive clothing, lots of money, prestige, fame, and other things to hide and medicate this deep issue. Some people resolve to lose weight, but they’re not doing it to be healthy. They’re doing it to be attractive so that other people will like them. This is just another way to hide the core issue of lack of self-love and the feeling that “you are not good enough.” That is why it is likely this resolution may not be followed through upon, and even if it is, that core issue is still there and will manifest in some other way. So spend some time looking deeper at your core issues. Grab a journal and write them down, see what they are and how you act them out. Then you can resolve to change the way you act in a mindful way.
Surrender Something You Need to Let go of. There are so many things that people hold onto. I encourage you to resolve to let go of one–just one—thing: relationship, job, situation, substance (like alcohol), or something else that you know you need to release. Maybe it is a belief or an idea that you need to let go of. The more important it is that you let go of something, the more likely your ego will resist when it comes time to do so. That usually means that once you let this thing go, you are likely to feel way better. The things we hold onto that no longer serve us use up a ton of our energy, and the only way to get the energy back is to let go of this thing. Once again, it only has to be one thing. That shouldn’t be too hard to achieve at least once during 2020.
Engage with people more than pixels! Looking at a phone is quick and undemanding. Texting is easier than talking—it is safer. This year, resolve to spend more time being physically present with people when you communicate with them. Replace an extended exchange on text with a meeting for coffee, lunch, or a walk in nature. Make a promise of presence.
Choose someone to forgive. All of us have legitimate grievances in our lives. Some people are very hard to forgive but you don’t have to start with the toughest cases. Small acts of grace will grow. Forgive the guy who cut you off and stole your parking place; after all, you have cut people off as well, on purpose or inadvertently. Forgive the person who made an unkind remark about you, as you have likely made an unkind remark about someone else. In forgiving, include yourself. Fight against perfectionism. Allow yourself the latitude of mistakes, without self-punishing. Have expectations of yourself, but don’t enforce them with a heavy club. Choose a place to begin. The more you forgive, the less the world can hurt you; forgiveness is a soft shield for your soul.
The New Year is here!!! You have not wasted a single day of the future. May your resolutions kindle a truly blessed, spiritual, and meaningful year! The key resolution is not to triumph or to always succeed. Resolutions of the spirit come down to one thing: to grow spiritually!
I wish you all a year full of joy, adventure, laughter, love and much growth!!!
Magical hugs and Infinite Blessings,
Carole and Goddess T.O.U.C.H.