New Year’s Resolutions
January 2012
By Heather Eilering
It’s January 7th, how are your New Year’s Resolutions going? I notice every year on Jan. 1st a new hope arising in myself and those around me.
The old year is over, this day is an opportunity to begin fresh, to follow my dreams, to be happy! I’ll eat right, exercise, meditate more, be kinder to others and the environment…
You know how it goes. But what happens on the evening of January 1st when you are out to dinner with friends and there’s that chocolate cream pie on the menu? A bunch of excuses come up as to why you can break your resolution, and with those thoughts you have set the energy for the rest of the year. Now you will have to wait until December 31st 11:59pm to begin anew, right? Wrong!!!
I’m writing you today many days after January 1st to introduce you to a very old, yet seemingly new concept. It’s called the MOMENT! Yes, right now, can you feel it? This word, and this one…
Take a deep breath in and really be aware of that breath… notice the pause at the top of the breath… now take a deep breath out and be very aware of that breath… notice the pause at the bottom of the breath…
Each breath out is an opportunity to release all the things you want to release and each breath in is an opportunity to receive all that you desire, right here in this moment.
The problem is that we think we desire things that are outside of our self; a great job, a fulfilling relationship, a new car, yoga butt. Lets dare to venture back to the last time you got something you really wanted. How about a chocolate mint chip ice cream cone. If you decide to cherish that ice cream by staring and admiring it, eventually it’s going to melt and you will be left with a sticky hand. If you decide to eat it, eventually it will be gone and you will be left with an empty inner stomach and bigger outer stomach. So what you thought would bring you happiness in the end only brought the memory of happiness and guilt for going off your diet.
What if I told you there was a way to eat that ice cream and be happy before, during and after? Would you want to know this way? Most likely you have already said yes of course, however, you already know that way, you’ve been learning about it for years, and for some reason you are not using it. Does that mean you don’t really want to be happy? No, it just means that you are confused about what truly makes you happy. In order to wash away the veil of this confusion we must consider the part of the breath technique that we most often overlook, the pause in between breaths. That moment where there is no in or out, no letting go or taking in, only stillness. And since we have determined we are confused about what makes us happy and as we review our lives we have learned that what we think makes us happy doesn’t last, maybe it’s time to be quiet and listen for what truly makes us happy. The wonderful gift of choosing to be quiet and listen is that when the answer comes, it comes from within, so anytime you truly want to be happy you need not go outside yourself!
So sit quietly and focus on your breath for a while, let go of what you do not want on each exhale, visualize yourself receiving pure happiness on each inhale, continue for several breaths…, until you feel calm, then focus your mind at the point between your eyebrows and meditate on the stillness.
We are told by those who have gone before us that if you practice this simple technique with an open, true heart that the gift of pure joy will be yours. And this gift didn’t necessarily come on January 1st or after dieting for 2 months, you don’t need to buy a fancy yoga mat to do it, or pay to sit in a room with others, and it takes a very short period of time. This gift arrived right on time, or beyond time if you will, NOW in the MOMENT. Each exhale is an opportunity to release the past, each pause in between is our opportunity to say I don’t know what makes me happy, show me so that in the next moment when breath comes in it carries the gift of pure joy.
In Loving Service,
-Heather
