Who are you going to be in 2012?

Practice for the New Year.. by the Dalai Lama

The Practice:

1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering

we all want the same things (to be happy and be loved)

and we are all connected to one another.

2. Spend 5 minutes breathing in, cherishing youself; and breathing out cherishing others. If you think about people you have diifficulty cherishing, extend your cherishing to them anyway.

3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet.

Practice cherishing the "simplest" person (clerks, attendants, etc)

or people you dislike.

4. Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you.

These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.

The practice of cherishing can be taken very deeply if done wordlessly,

allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that

already exists in your heart.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is a creation of the mind.

Every moment is an opportunity to redefine yourself.

I think this new year is a great time to reflect on yourself.. on what you could do better..on what you could learn and what you can teach. It starts with YOU. I can't control the outside world.. God knows, I would love to but the only person that I can do anything about is me. I do extend that to my kids because they are still young and I continually think out of the box with them and try to open their hearts as much as their minds.

For the longest time.. I kept a gratitude journal basically to just stay grateful for my life. I don't really do that anymore because I am grateful for everything but if you struggle if finding the good in life, then maybe the above exercise would be helpful to you. I don't do these steps myself.. yet but I do start off each day with a prayer. Just asking God to let the day be good and let me learn all the lessons the first time so I don't have to go through it again. I ask for strength and courage and I ask the white light of the holy spirit surround me and my family. You guys know me by now. I am not a religious person. I am very spiritual and 10000% believe in God and know that this life is short and I want to fill my head and heart with as many good memories to take to the other side with me. That really starts with trying to be kind. I am hot tempered and I snap pretty quickly but hopefully this exercise will help me be kind when someone else is being mean. That is my issue.