Saturday, December 27, 2014

New Year Magic



Each new year we get an opportunity to start fresh, change what we don't like and bring in what we desire. Yet, for many of us these new years resolutions do not last. The reason is simple, if you don't clear out a space for the new, it won't be able to fit. If you buy a new car but don't move the old one out of the garage first, there won't be any room for the new car, new behaviors are the same.

For example, you may want to quit smoking, and you have very good reasons for it, it is unhealthy and expensive, yet unless you get to the root of your reason for smoking you will be battling yourself and often you won't win. Even if you do actually quit keeping yourself from taking up smoking again can be difficult when you don't deal with your underlying issues.

To get to the root of any problem the fastest way is to sit with the problem, and ask yourself how it makes you feel. What emotions comes up? Why do I smoke? What feelings arise when you ask yourself this....to feel calm, so stress is the issue. Stress has more than one emotion so you would want to track it further...anxiety, worry, the need to take a time out. There, now you have unraveled the problem. You come to see there are several causes and the emotional responses for these causes are creating a trigger to your smoking. The next step is to ask yourself what can I do instead of smoking that can satisfy me, in this case calm me down?  Exercise, walking, yoga, breathing, meditating, being creative, playing music or writing, painting, making jewelry all of these can be used to deal with the stress that leads to your smoking. There are likely more layers of issues such as why you started in the first place and how you feel about smoking. All can be explored to help you better understand why this arrived in your life and how to work through it. 

Addiction is a complex issue, it has a physical component that is at first the hardest to deal with. In the case of smoking you might consider nicotine gum or patches to help deal with urges. Yet, if you really want to work through an addiction understanding the cause helps in letting go of this old habit and moving forward into a fresh, open space in the present where you are free from the addition, the habit and the guilt and stress that it creates by being in your life. You see the stress that leads you to smoke also creates more stress of its own kind so that it is really a vicious circle and nothing is really made better. The only way to make it better is to rid yourself of the damaging pattern once and for all.

Harness the New Year energy, while many others are doing the same thing you can ride the collective energetic wave and it will be that much easier.

Let 2015 be your year to shine!