Timeless words to remember and live by as we begin 2017.

It’s 2017 and as we venture into a new year it’s time once again to reflect on life. Rather than focus on resolutions, I like to focus on a particular mindset to guide me through the days. I’ve been doing it for several years now and having a clear focus helps me to balance my mental and physical health,  emotional clarity and well-being, and the direction I want to take my professional and personal life.

I started this conscious way of thinking in 2014 as a means to challenge and embolden myself. Not one prone to  step outside my relatively shy comfort zone, I dared to dream big, to push myself, and to rise above the mountain of dysfunction around me. 2015 was a more reflective time – even though I had challenged myself the year before and succeeded with becoming a stronger, more assured person, my life was also fraught with emotional difficulties and I needed to remind myself to enjoy the simple moments around me and to appreciate what I had, rather than what I didn’t, and that was my mantra for the year.

Regardless of what year it is, and whether you call it a resolution or a life goal, the trick is just doing something. We have but one life to live and there is no time like the present to start being all you want to be.

Last year I took a big step to control more of my inner peace and personal zen by ridding myself of as much negativity and unhealthy energy around me as I could. It wasn’t always easy – trying to manage the inertia of the world around you is daunting at best, but all in all, I felt as if I managed to stay on course.

Although each year centers on a different focal point, through it all, it’s always been the wise lessons and subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways of my cats that I take example from. They never cease to amaze me and they never cease to stop teaching me. For example, I’ve noticed of late that there’s been a lot of minor spats and fights between them. It’s probably a shifting of the pecking order based on the assorted ages of them, but despite the fights, they always seem to work things out, and moments later they’re cuddling together somewhere, the best of friends, letting bygones be bygones.

How we respond to the strife in our life defines our character and quality of life. We can let it let is weigh us down, or we can rise above it to help set us free.

That’s what I want for this year. I want to focus on letting go of past grievances that are etched in my heart like a permanent  tattoo and concentrate instead on tolerance, forgiveness, and moving on. The pain of the past doesn’t magically go away just because you want it to, but it can be managed, and it can be put into a perspective that perhaps wasn’t perceived before.

I’m actually a very tolerant and forgiving person, I always have been, but for this year, I want to take the focus more off of me and focus on healing others around me who need help seeing the light through the darkness. There are some around me who have been in pain and turmoil for quite some time, but in the frenzy of my own stressful and hectic life, I didn’t always see it for what it was and I want to change that.

Kindness is the one gift that doesn’t have to cost a single penny, but can reap the greatest rewards.

I think it’s a good mindset for all of us at this juncture. I think we can all agree the past year has been trying for us as a nation. We’ve become fractured through race, politics, religion and more. That’s not necessarily unusual, but it seems to have gotten far worse. I pray that we can find it in us to be more accepting of the flaws and differences that we all have. I pray that we can understand all of us carry the burden of past hurts and injustices on our shoulders and that we can’t jump so quickly to condemnation, unfair judgments, and rash opinions about one another.

We can’t always control what’s going on around us, but we can control how we chose to handle it.

If we all can try just the tiniest bit to work toward building a better world together, I think strides can be made. But it has to start from within and it requires an open mind and the willingness to accept this is not a perfect world where we get to write the script of how we think the story should play out. It just doesn’t work that way and the only way to affect positive change and growth is the willingness to see beyond what is directly in front of you.

I recently took some time off and all but checked out of social media, my blog, my computer, and my iPhone and I honestly think it was a healthy step that many of us should try more of. By doing so, it requires more of an investment in the physical reality around you. Eye contact. Conversations. Building trust and communication. Texts, tweets, and status updates are a great way to stay  connected, but the brevity also invites miscommunication and misinterpretation of the shades of grey that are inherent in life.

Happy New Year to you all. May your year take you down whatever journey brings you the most inner peace it can. Be grateful for a new day and be grateful for new opportunities. And most of all, love yourself so you may love others.

The simple truth is, actions speak louder than words. If this isn’t the world you had hoped it would be, help to change it for the better.