Six Habits to Transform Your Year

A clean slate once again! What a perfect time to put the past behind us and embrace our full potential as creative directors of our lives.

To help create a year you'll love, consider the following tips and techniques to transform your 2008. Choose one you haven't mastered yet and enjoy!

1. Breathe

Letting oxygen in to fill the lungs is not only good for physical health, but for your emotional and spiritual health as well. We feel better and think better when our cells are fully oxygenated. Some say it's because oxygen strengthens our connection to source energy.

Next time you don't know what to do or feel overwhelmed with challenging emotions, take a couple of deep breaths and let the peace (and solutions) in, while releasing the stress. Oxygen is both invigorating and cleansing.

2. Feel

Since our feelings dictate what we attract, it's important to be aware of and manage them. Many of us have learned to ignore or deny our feelings for various reasons. Being disconnected to our feelings is to be disconnected to our creative power. Ancient spiritual traditions, as well as leading edge science, tells us our feelings dictate what manifests in our lives. Getting clear on what we're feeling and learning to choose them deliberately allows us to be deliberate manifestors.

Learn to let yourself feel your feelings. Notice where in your body the feeling sensations reside. Imagine going to the core of the essence of that energy - the very center of it - and then just be present to it. Sit with it and let yourself feel what's there until it dissipates.
This simple but profound practice frees us from negative behaviors many engage in (overeating, overworking, and other addictive behaviors) to keep from feeling.

3. Be Still

Embrace the habit of slowing down. Becoming present to the current moment creates space for magic to happen. When our lives are crammed full of "reality" and our knee jerk reactions to it, we have neither the discipline nor the capability of directing our attention where it best serves us.

Beginning a meditation practice can be as easy as Elizabeth Gilbert's (author of "Eat, Pray, Love") mentor taught her: simply sit and smile for a few minutes each day. You'll notice a difference when you do.

There are a variety of ways to explore internal peace and quiet. However you approach the practice, the journey is well rewarded.

4. Focus

Want to really blow the socks off your new year? Cultivate a focus on what's working in your life and what's truly important to you. Get used to looking at what's going your way, things to appreciate, and reasons to be thankful. Since we get what we think about, as we direct our attention on what we want and enjoy (instead of worrying about what we don't want or what went wrong before), we allow our deepest desires to manifest.

Although it takes a little practice, the energy invested in this pursuit pays off handsomely. In the very least, as Meister Eckhart said, "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."

5. Let Go

There comes a time we're called to release old patterns, friendships, lifestyles, thoughts, etc. When that time comes, honor it. New things and experiences can't enter our lives while we've got a death grip on the old. Learn to trust your intuition and doubt your fear, and let go of what no longer serves you.

Also, one of the most powerful ways to transform your year is to release your attachment to outcome. What we really want isn't so much a particular outcome anyway. Rather, what we really want is how we think that outcome will make us feel. You can, in fact, choose that feeling now, before anything else happens.

6. Have Fun

We Americans are particularly driven by ambition and the push to succeed, often at the expense of enjoying the journey. Let's not forget the bigger picture. Suffering doesn't serve anyone.

Sometimes we think it's wrong to enjoy life when so many others aren't, or when there is so much work to correct our "faltering" world. The truth is that suffering doesn't serve anyone - not you, not others, and certainly not the cause we feel so passionate about. We're offering our best service when we feel good.

Know that when you "push against" something, you strengthen it. That in itself is reason enough to relinquish suffering. There's nothing to prove and no hoops to jump through in order to be worthy of reward. So relax and relish!

Finally, you know more than you think you do. Remember to trust yourself and lighten up to savor the journey. Enjoy your new year as if it were impossible to go wrong, because indeed, it is. Happy 2008!

It's Happening

Something I used to be incredibly self-conscious about is that my right eyebrow and eyelashes are dark while my left eyebrow and eyelashes are blond. I've had them dyed since I was 13 years old.

(This is why I have virtually no pictures of myself - it's easy to spot the difference in photos for some reason.)

For most of my life, I went to one person to have my lashes & brows dyed. Every month for an hour and a half I would sit in my aesthetician's salon chair while she applied dye to make my lashes & brows appear normal.

Sometimes I wondered what would I do if it weren't for her. No one does as good a job as she does. No one gets the match quite right; no one else cares as much as she does. No one else makes me feel as beautiful.

And then she went to Europe for the summer. Which was potentially devastating, as I'd relied heavily on her to feel good about myself.

But then I met Renae. Who did an even better job than my original girl! I never dreamed it possible to improve on the service I was already receiving, but there it was. Even better than before! I wouldn't have thought it possible! But it was undeniable. Even better than before. How lucky am I?!

And now Renae has injured her shoulder and isn't working.

Instead of being devastated, this time I know there is another good surprise in store for me.

This is what I'm thinking of as I reflect on 2007 and look forward to 2008. This last year was amazing in so many ways, that I wouldn't think it possible to improve on. If I didn't already know better, that is. It really CAN get better! In fact, it DOES! That's how it works.

Three years ago when I was dating online every guy I met was even better than the last. It was surreal!! I don't think I stopped smiling the entire summer! I tell people all the time that I had so much fun that summer I'm sure it was illegal.

So I know it can get better than it already is - even when it's already fabulous. I also know that as I reflect on how wonderful it is, it can't HELP but get better. That's how the system works.

Life is already SO good, what more could I ask in this upcoming year? 2007 treated me very well ... I can't imagine what more to look forward to in 2008. But then I remember Renae.

And I remember life just keeps getting better.

Better and better.

Are you ready? Are you ready for it to get even better than it has been?

Because it's coming.

Actually, it's happening already. In every moment, it's getting better. Can you feel it?

It's happening now.

Here's to 2007, and 2008, and all the wonderful years ahead and behind us. Aren't we the lucky ones?!

See how your year was wonderful, and you're automatically a guaranteed shoe-in for another one. Namaste, my friends.