New Years Resolutions?

Hello All! December is such a funny month to me.
Many feel a great deal of pressure because of Christmas and then what is worse is that come January 1st we take a good long look at ourselves; generally focusing on the flaws and create resolutions for the New Year that are generally pushed by the way-side only to make us feel worse that we didn't keep them in the first place.

I suggest we all try to simplify the holiday. Lets shift the focus and take the opportunity to just reflect. Let us take a good long look at all the entire year, begin with all of the good that took place. Take time to reflect on some of the other milestones be they good, bad or somewhere in between and focus on how you may have felt when they happened and how far you have come now.

Rather then focus on an event focus on how you are feeling about it at the present time, how you have dealt with it and if possible let go of anything that may not be serving you at this time. If possible create or perform an existing ritual that you find to be very 'clearing'. I love to put my feet in the Ocean; even on a cold day and feel the salt water washing away the things that are bogging me down; the energetic matter that is clogging my field. It is important to remember to let go of that which is not serving you, and that which is not to your highest good. Sometimes even what we consider to be less good we will hang onto because we may not be finished with it yet.

There are of course many different ways to release energy, I love to use Reiki to shift and manipulate the energy, of course you can meditate or visualize this happening. Sometimes I love to write everything out; just to feel that release, you can then choose to keep or destroy the paper depending on what resonates with you. Everyone has a different way of 'letting go', and if you don't I encourage you to find your own way, whatever feels right with you.

So rather then focus on the bad; lets again take the time to see how far we have come this year and lets intend that whatever we may be hanging on to from the past year that is not serving us is released. Let it go and enter into 2010 feeling a little bit better!

Controling the Uncontrolable

Its amazing how people in our North American culture have just accepted that life is stressful. I mean sure it can be. But it is my personal view that we can only become stressed when and if we choose to allow ourselves to be. While some emotions are harder to control; Stress is quite easily mastered.
I know a man who becomes easily stressed at the drop of a hat, suddenly one thing leads to the next and his negative energy attracts more negative energy and 'the whole world has turned against him' Does this sound like someone you know?
Here is my dealing with stress lesson 1: When it really is out of your control-

I am talking about a situation that you really can't change at this present moment, not something with a true solution. Something like being in traffic or waiting in line
Now:
Think about it from a very subjective point of view, think of what you can control. I'm going to give you a huge tip here: the thing in any situation that you can always control, is you. The thing that you can always change is your perspective. For example when your in traffic; rather then focus on the slow moving vehicles and how you wish they would go faster; change your perspective and just accept that this is where you are now. Acceptance is huge and lets face it if you are waiting in line, or if you spill something, break something, if your car breaks down the fist thing is always just accepting what has happened. No need to get upset about it, its done, it happened and you can't change it now. Most people will get stressed maybe express a few expletives but really all you are doing is causing stress to YOURSELF. Why would you want to do that?
So lets recap lesson 1:
If you find yourself in a situation that would usually cause you stress but you just have to wait it out; change your perspective, accept that you are here right now, remember that you will not be here forever and for good measure find a way to enjoy something. Be it focusing on something visually enjoyable, listening to something you like, or taking a moment to just focus on something that does make you happy.