My next public presentation is on Saturday, January 12th at the Patterson Library. I will be leading a lively, interactive discussion around the audience’s personal and professional dreams and goals for 2013. Come join the fun! RSVP at www.pattersonlibrary.org .
I love this time of crossing the threshold into a new year with potential new possibilities and opportunities. It is a time to look back at what was good, growth enhancing and brought joy in the year past, and resolve to change what didn’t work so that the year ahead is one to remember for it’s contribution to our lives.
Proclaiming New Year’s resolutions can be daunting, particularly if we feel we have fallen short in past years. In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg has specific ways to change one’s habits in a very practical way. This is beneficial advice because certainly on one level it is about establishing habits that better support us. But it is also necessary to go a little deeper and inquire about our true intentions.
Often we work against ourselves. We think of things we would like in our lives because they would be good for us or get us to a place we think we need and want to be. But on closer look, realize that we really don’t want these changes, either because these ideas are adopted from others or our culture, or it does not resonate with who we truly are.
“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life,
but my realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
Eckhart Tolle
When we tune into who we truly are, what our purpose and values are and the vision we have for our life, often we discover that our heart longs for something completely different.
There is such value with having more intimate contact with ourselves and what we really want—it can be the difference between heading down a meaningful fulfilling path or getting totally lost in the woods, losing the path altogether.
Where do we find ourselves? In stillness. In taking time daily to sit with ourselves either in meditation or just quiet contemplation, leaving the world behind for a short while. There we can begin to know the truth of who we are and what we want from this life we have.
We can find ourselves in the reflection of a supportive guide, coach or counselor—one whose only agenda is to help us connect more deeply with our inner wisdom, wants, needs and desires.
We can find ourselves in nature. We are part of nature and there are patterns that can be learned from and followed in the deep woods, rhythmic motion of the sea, the ever-changing sky.
Make this a year to remember: one where you connected more deeply with who you are and what you truly want; one where the beauty, joy and love shines through and lights up your life.
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