Living Fully in the New Year

The holidays are over, and the decorations have been boxed up and stowed for another year. Hopefully you’ve made some good memories of times celebrating Christmas with family and friends and ringing in the new year.

It’s likely that over the last week you have had an opportunity to participate in a Burning Bowl and White Stone ceremony to release your old beliefs and set your intention for the new year. I wrote about these powerful ceremonies couple of years ago and how transformative they can be.

I, for one, am more than ready for a new beginning. Several months ago, I shared about the flood that triggered a months-long cascade of inconveniences and frustrations. For that reason and a few more, last year felt heavy to me, laden with complications and disappointments. I wasn’t always successful in rising above those situations, so my vision for the new year is less about better circumstances, although those would be welcome, and more about having a lighter attitude no matter what the year brings.

I’m thinking the best way to do that is to ditch the idea of resolutions altogether. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan. Maybe it’s because I was never able to stick with them for too long. But I think there may be another reason too. I used to keep a narrow perspective about what I was resolving to do. I focused so narrowly and intently on improving myself, I squeezed any fun out of the process. Now I’m interested in expanding my experience of life instead of just trying to improve it.

The mistake I made in making resolutions was they felt too much like work. Cleaning up bad habits meant deprivation and sacrifice. Starting good habits meant discipline and seriousness. Not surprisingly, my efforts usually petered out after a couple of weeks.

Sense of Hope and Possibility

I’m going to try a new thing this year: I’m going to think less about work and deprivation and more about growth and opportunity. I’m going to enter this year lightly, living into my sense of hope and possibility.

My intention this year is to keep reminding myself to live fully by making my goals less about changing, which feels too much like work, and more about welcoming, which feels more like opportunity.

Living Spiritually in the New Year

I hope you’ll join me in this new approach. The thing to remember is no matter what you may want to start or stop doing, whatever you wish to achieve, you will be able to undertake it lightly when you remember you are a spiritual being and the presence of God is not only with you, but also within you.

If the New Year’s resolutions you had made in the past involved relying upon willpower alone, I invite you to think differently this year. Relax and be kind to yourself. Begin with God. Begin with the knowledge and faith that you are meant to dream big and accomplish great things. You’re endowed with the spiritual gifts you can use to bring those dreams to life.

Pray often to know the truth of yourself as a spiritual being. Use affirmations to claim divine ideas. Be patient if your plans don’t come together as quickly as you might like. Trust divine timing. Lean into your divine power, knowing you have so much more at your disposal than mere willpower.

If you choose to carry a resolution into the new year, let it be this:  Keep your divine identity at the forefront of your thinking, so you will feel the presence of God go with you every day of the year.

This was a Daily Word^® editor’s letter. To subscribe to Daily Word, please visit https://shop.unityonline.org/subscribe.