What do you really want?

During the last week of December, I reflect back on the past year, up until the last minutes when my husband and I recall the year together. We remember big and small moments, the happy and the not so happy ones. And then we look forward. What might be coming in the year ahead? What promises, challenges, hurdles?

Although I’ve never liked New Year’s resolutions, I do ask, what kind of feelings do I want more in my life? What do I really want?
Teaching mindfulness, we often ask this question the way you drop a pebble into a well: There is a first splash, but then as we repeat the question, other answers may come – deeper, more nuanced ones.

What I have come to understand more over the years is that we wish for certain things or achievements for the feeling we believe it will give us. Once you know what the feeling is, you can look for other ways to find it , maybe even right now. If you wish for peacefulness, you can think about what could make you feel more peaceful right now.

Many roads lead to Rome. There is more than one way to feel more peaceful, more joyful or more at ease in your life.
So, what do you really want? What feeling are you after when you seek that relationship, that job, that weight, that gadget? Where else in your life might there be there a taste of that?

Let your mind and heart roam wild. You’ll be surprised how often you’ll find that what you yearn for is right at your fingertips.

I wish us all a blessed year 2013.

Christiane

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