A Fresh Start…

If you’re reading this blog on 1st January, let me wish you a very happy new year. It’s a pleasure to share these positive thoughts with you at the start of the year and offer you the encouragement to explore your potential for greater happiness and a truly fulfilling life. And who gets to decide these issues? Well, that would be you.

As we turn the page of the calendar and feel the excitement of beginning a new year, we should aim to get a better grasp of how the passage of the years has left its mark on us. It’s a good moment to consider how you’ve changed. Not just in the past twelve months but over the course of your life. Most of us couldn’t even recognise ourselves from our teenage years. We grow and change and that’s why this time of year is so useful. We have an opportunity to decide how we want to manage the next stage in the process of change. It isn’t simply a question of ageing. It’s about how we’re using the time that's available to us.

And time is a very strange phenomenon. We take it very much for granted and watch it ticking away as we consult the clocks in our vicinity. But when you consider how different you are today from the person you used to be, you can appreciate that the years have led to many unexpected changes. You get a glimpse of what is really possible in terms of your personal growth and development. The purpose here is for you take better control of the changes you want to experience.

It's always been popular in our culture to make new year’s resolutions that usually involve a physical change in our daily habits. We might want to lose weight, get fit, improve our stamina or change our diet. All worthy objectives. But I’d like to suggest that you set aside a few minutes every day to practise the simple activity of mindfulness. Become aware of how your thoughts and feelings are flowing through your mental landscape. Learn to breathe and detach yourself from this stream of consciousness until you become aware that you are not your mental and emotional energy. Discover the deeper levels of calm and balance that emerge when your mind becomes quieter. Feel free to explore this deeper sense of personal identity that is no longer an extension of whatever thoughts and feelings are running through the field of your perception. This could mark the beginning of a brighter, happier and healthier way of experiencing each day. This is your choice. It’s entirely up to you. But choose wisely.

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