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Making changes through quiet focus...
January is the winter month in which many of us tend to make our new year’s resolutions. What we will do and what we will stop doing. This year, I am proposing that we take a different type of focus. This may be the year that we can make our changes through inward quiet focusing.
We may think that we have been confined a lot and distanced a lot and feel like our rights/privileges have been curtailed a lot. This past year, we may have felt like we were frozen stiff and unable to move around freely as we have been able to do in the past. It may feel like this past year has been a fierce, cold, isolating winter
As we see in nature, winter is when all becomes still. We see leaves and blossoms all fall away and trees are stripped of their normal appearances. Only the trunks and vital branches withstand the winter. The life force of living things goes down deep to their roots to preserve their lives.
In a metaphorical sense, our vital life roots and trunk are intact. if we can reach deep inside our beings and realize all that happens in the outer world pales in comparison to the life that is our intrinsic true self. The vital life energy of our soul.
In my new book, Hurrah for Humans (Inspiring stories of courage and kindness), we read stories that celebrate our human spirit -- that unnamed strength which truly lies within us. Perhaps this is the time that such stories are needed and appreciated even more.
These true stories restore our faith in ourselves and in our fellow human beings. They show that, by staying connected with our true intrinsic eternal Soul Selves, we can overcome any obstacles. That the things, circumstances and events on the outside of us can be met with peaceful hearts, strong determination and a resolve that as human beings we are on this planet together so we work together.
So, beginning in this new year 2021, I invite us to take a few minutes at the beginning of each day to sit quietly and breathe deeply. Focusing on our breathing keeps us in the “now” moment and allows our physical body to begin to relax. Some call it “meditation;” some call it “centering down” and for others it is “letting go” of all the outside activity. But whatever you label it, taking only 20 minutes to become quiet -- physically and mentally -- will do wonders for how you are able to handle things during that day.
At the end of the day, I like to do a “review/preview” – that is, I review the day as if I was watching a movie rerun, and, wherever I didn’t handle a situation the way I wanted, I imagine how I could have done it just the way I would have wanted to have done it and then replace the old part with that new part of my “movie.” For those things I handled perfectly, I smile and give myself encouragement and praise. I think we sometimes forget to give ourselves encouragement.
Remember the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor who was famous for her glamorous and colorful personal life? When she was asked, “What do you give the man who has everything?” She replied, “Why, encouragement, darling. Encouragement.” We need to give ourselves genuine encouragement.
I invite us to keep a Joy Journal. This is a simple blank book that you write in daily a few of the things that brought you joy whether you were receiving or giving it. Only write those experiences that gave you joy, made you smile, laugh, sigh with contentment. Positive experiences that were real to you. Then, when you are having life’s challenges, you can go back and read -- in your own writing -- the joys you experienced. That will change your feelings, up-level your attitude which will give you more balance and clarity on how to easily handle your day’s challenges.
As we keep the fire in our soul-belly burning brightly, we can stay focused on what is important, not just urgent. We can extend that flame of human warmth, kindness and caring outward to others. We can change our world -- one person at a time -- one day at a time.
I wish you peace and the rekindled warmth of human caring today and throughout our new year -- and success at your reSOULing!
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