Whether we set resolutions or simply look to the turn of the year as a time to pause and assess where we are in the pattern of our lives it is helpful to keep a few basic principles and practices in mind.
Underlying all our New Year’s Resolutions and attempts at change is the desire to feel better…to be happy and healthy. Our minds and how we use them have a lot to do with those goals/desires. Here are some thoughts that may help to support whatever changes you would like to bring into your life in 2016.
Beyond Happy Thoughts
English: Emotions associated with happiness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Did you know that happiness is a physiological state and not just “a state of mind”?
Did you know that the condition of your energy —-it’s quantity, quality and flow has a lot to do with how happy you feel?
Heart and Brain research is showing us a lot about the underpinnings of what we experience within when we are happy. Even better news from this research is that we can create that state (happiness) through the choices in our daily lives. A huge influence is how we use our mind and influence our energy!
When we expand our energy and build it we feel good. When we contract our energy we feel bad. On one level it is that simple. (On another level, it is equally important to erase old patterns of fear, doubt and negativity that bring energy down.)
There are many ways to influence our energy, but one major and important way is through mind mastery…being in charge of how our mind focuses rather than letting it run in default patterns that do us no good. Thoughts trigger feelings and those feelings exist as chemistry in the body that then spawn further similar thoughts.
Photo by Sonia‘s View
Go gently, treat yourself kindly
The things that we habitually think about, believe and feel either expand or contract our energy. The environments we choose to spend time in can do the same.
An easy way to focus on building healthy strong energy that will help you to feel happier is simply to notice what thoughts make you feel good and which ones bring you down. Make a commitment to yourself to GENTLY choose to shift your thought patterns once you notice that you are drifting down old familiar paths that weaken your energy.
No blame or judgment–we all do it—it is simply a matter of deciding to shift your direction to choices that bring you toward mastery and away from the place where you feel buffeted about by life and at the mercy of outer circumstance.
To paraphrase Victor Frankel: no one can control or dictate how we use our minds. No one else but you gets to determine the inner emotional climate that you maintain. That is a fundamental freedom that no one can tamper with!
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