by Tina Erwin
The symbol of each New Year is a new baby, as if somehow we are blessed with newness for the coming year. New opportunities, fresh ideas, and a clean slate are the symbols we expect to see for a new year. The symbol of the current year is an old man leaving.
The real key, is the issue of wisdom. Is this old man leaving someone who just survived the outgoing year? Or, is this a much wiser man who is exiting this year because the year just passed offered him a chance to grow on tremendous levels. It makes you wonder why we don’t all feel like wise sages at the end of the year? Well, why don’t we?
Perhaps it starts on the first of January when we make karmic promises to ourselves – also called New Year’s resolutions – and then forget what we said within about two weeks of making those promises. Resolutions are karmic promises, commitments to do or become something or change something about our personality. However, the problem arises when we betray our trust in ourselves by blowing off those promises/resolutions as too hard or not really that important.
Imagine blowing off a karmic promise to yourself throughout your lifetime. That potentially creates a negative karmic buildup. We all believe to our core that it is critically important for one person to keep their word to someone but we often forget how precious it is for each of us to keep our word to ourselves. This means that we have to be emotionally present for ourselves. If we can be true to ourselves, then we have created the foundation to be true to others as well.
Nowhere is it written that we have to make a New Year’s Resolution. So, don’t make any resolutions. Then you never have to be concerned about forgetting to be true to yourself as you begin a new year – or end a millennia!
Wisdom is cleverly defined by the care and respect that we show ourselves, with a balance toward treating others with that same care and respect. It is the golden rule: you treat others the way you would treat yourself, hopefully with wisdom and courtesy.
So to begin a new year, review the successes and learning experiences of the previous year. That is a tremendous exercise. If you felt a friendship slip out of balance, decide whether or not it can be healed. If you received a promotion, then remember to be grateful for all the people and experiences that got you to this point. If someone new entered your life, ponder how that person has changed your life – or perhaps he or she didn’t have any affect on your life at all. Karma always wants to know if we learned the lesson of any experience. Those lessons not fully learned will be revisited upon all of your life. Only in this way will any of us truly learn wisdom.
If you feel a bit sheepish for not keeping previous resolutions take that negative and turn it into a positive: analyze what resolutions you have made in the past. Did you make the same resolution year after year and did you break it or forget it year after year? Ask yourself why? This is one of the key elements of a spiritual path, learning to listen to that still small voice within yourself that actually is you. Listen to what you say to yourself, how you sound and how you come across to yourself. If you consistently meant to do something and never did, then analyze your own pattern and don’t merely vow to change it! Once you analyze why you broke your promise to yourself repeatedly, look to see if this is a significant character flaw. If it is a character flaw decide if it can be changed and if you do truly want to change it. Maybe you won’t want to change it. Maybe you will decide to never make a promise to yourself that you never had any intention at all of keeping.
Imagine how much more honest you will feel toward yourself. The essence of the spiritual path is learning the path to wisdom regarding all of the fascinating personalities in your life and the life experiences you encounter. However, each of us must first learn to be true to ourselves.
So take a deep breath on 0001, Jan 1 and decide not to vow anything, not to make any resolutions. Even though we all know it is good to have goals, New Year’s goals are frequently the ones we seldom if ever cherish. So don’t, make any; don’t make a goal you’ll never keep.
Relax on New Year’s Day. Enjoy the anticipation of a wonderful new year. Perhaps write some affirmations such as:
• Day by day in everyway, I am getting better and better and better.
• Something wonderful happens to me every day.
• I am so blessed, that literally, money falls out of the sky for me and I am always generous with my good fortune.
Happy New Year wise soul!
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