As we fast approach the beginning of a New Year, so many people start to talk about making resolutions that often end up putting your attention into the future … I’m going to invite you to do the opposite!
What if the whole thing about New Year’s resolutions was counter-productive and has been a tantalising trick of the mind?
- Are you over all the judgment and expectation that comes with New Year?
- Have you had enough of letting yourself down with failed promises?
- Do you find yourself overcommitting to things, people or work?
- Do you find yourself struggling to remember what is important to you and end up getting busy just to distract yourself?
- Are you someone who spends a lot of time stuck in your head and paralysed by analysis?!
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you do all that?
I ask those of you who make resolutions each year on 1st January, what is your experience of what happens when you set these type of goals? Do you actually experience transformation and lasting shifts in your behaviour? Or do you find that after a few days, weeks or if you are really tenacious, a month or two, the old behaviour you have been trying to change, re-emerges or something equally as annoying pops up to replace it!
The problem with most resolutions is that they sit in the old paradigm of fixing and changing behaviours which you judge as being wrong or dysfunctional. So the focus goes on what is wrong and needs to go away rather than having your attention on what you love or what you are moving towards.
You see, we get what we predominantly focus on with our thoughts. Simply put, if our energy is on what we don’t want and what we don’t like, we get more of that. And wherever there is resistance, you get more resistance.
As you are constantly creating your experience in each moment, both consciously and more importantly, unconsciously it pays to wise up to what is going through your mind. Meditation is a perfect way of becoming more conscious and although for the beginner, it can be quite confronting to bear witness to what is going on in your head, over time you begin to see some fascinating patterns.
It is said that we have between 50-70,000 thoughts a day with only 5000 of them original and the rest being repetitive and mostly negative self-talk. Until we can turn to face those thoughts and feel the emotions that swim around with them, we will forever be caught in a cycle resistance and exhaustion from over-thinking.
Instead of this year making more resolutions and plans to fix what is ‘wrong’, how about you get present and take stock of what is happening right here and now and FEEL what is going on before adding a whole lot more into your life.
I’m an expert in supporting people to reach clarity where there is confusion. I encourage people to love and respect who they are by wising up to what is really going on for them so that they can make true and authentic choices in each moment and I support people to break addictive patterns of behaviour and focus their minds on what really brings them peace of mind and joy.
If that speaks to you , I am interested in talking with you and would be delighted to see if there’s a fit for us to partner up. I have 5 more places available for my 3-month partner program and looking for those 5 people to make the beginning of 2016 really count.
with love
David
Picture Credit:(https://www.flickr.com/photos/katerha/)