First of the Year

Greetings all,

Happy New Year!  I hope your holiday was a blessed and joyous one.   It can be a strange time between the winter solstice and New Year's Day.  The days blur into one another and our normal rhythm is disrupted.  I think that is one of the traits of the midwinter holidays that they happen in a zone where our routines can't flow without thought.

The first of the year is always looked at as a time to take stock of our lives.  We make resolutions for change to alter the circumstances of our lives.  Many people start diets or exercise regimens.  Others try new activities or try to learn a new skill.  This year I was hard pressed to come up with a new year's resolution.  It's not that everything is perfect in my life (what is perfect anyhow), but rather that an external change lost most of its motivational value.  I don't mean to say I wouldn't like to have some areas improve, but I have come to realize over the past year, as many aspects of my life have improved, that few external things bring any sort of lasting satisfaction.

So what is a man to do when there isn't something to fix upon for a change?  I have been pondering that.  There are ways of being that if made habit would bring about a change in my internal self.  It is those practices I would like to make my focus.  What are they?  Well being more regular with my meditative and prayer work (other than that I do to prepare for clients) is one I believe will create a more centered presence in myself.  More regimental practice of yoga which would likewise create that mirror of ease and presence in my physical self.  Simply resolving into taking a more hopeful and optimistic outlook on my own life.  There is no harsher critic to me than myself.

These resolutions may indeed bring about external changes in my body, and my efficiency with work.  However the real gem is what they give to the unseen self.  Most people who have met me tend to think I am very calm.  Sometimes I am.  More often than not they are simply not perceiving my internal state. I have been a very anxious person.  It is one of the motivating factors that started me on my spiritual practices.  I needed them in order to function.  My sensitivity which I use extensively now for my work was for many years a burden.  Some days it still is.

So my friends how does this apply to you?  Well as you review the year past and make your resolutions be sure to look within you for those things that maybe no one else will see.  Do you speak harshly to yourself in your head?  Do you lack faith in your own abilities?  How is your internal emotional landscape?  Yes we all want fitter more attractive bodies but what about calmer more creative minds?  Can you cultivate warmth in your heart through your everyday life?  Don't let your success be only about numbers on a scale or getting that raise.  Let your year be about the part of you that only you know and live with.  May your internal kingdom shine brighter this year.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle