Thursday, December 8, 2011

New Year's Resolutions? Try something different this year!


New Year's resolutions? I don't do them. Never have. They just don't resonate with me. But there is something I've done for years, something a little different, and I'd like to share it with you. If you like, you could give it a try.

One holiday season, back in the Stone Age (all right, it was really about 20 years ago) I came across a short saying that just stuck in my head. The words: All life is one life. The result: I spent the whole next year contemplating it, keeping it in the back of my mind all the time, mainly because I just couldn't get rid of it. I guess you could call it a long-term meditation, though not exactly a voluntary one.

The results were profound. It really did change my life.

So I decided to do it again, only by choice this time.

Throughout the holiday season, I remained alert for another phrase or saying to appear and nudge me in the ribs. And one did. So I repeated the process, with equally amazing results. I've been doing it ever since.

Some years, as January rolled around, I worried that my Saying of the Year wouldn't show up. It always did, though I found I couldn't rush it. I also found I couldn't just pick a saying that I heard or read somewhere. It had to come to me, not the other way round.

This year it showed up a little early, about a week ago. It's like a snippet of catchy song lyrics, stuck in my head and refusing to budge, so it must be The Saying of the Year.

It's an Eckhart Tolle quote: You do not live life; life lives you. Life is the dancer. You are the dance.

This should be an interesting year.