HAPPY 2007 - by Joan Goldstein

Out with the old in with the new!  Now is the perfect time to take an inventory of your life (if you haven’t already done it) and decide if there is something about it, you would like to change; notice what has been working for you and what hasn’t.  It’s a perfect time to set new goals and poise yourself on the threshold of a year filled with adventure.

 As I did this for myself at the beginning of last year, I decided that even if I broke a resolution, I didn’t have to give up on it.  I had the realization that I could start again the next day;  that each day offers  a new opportunity to change our lives.  Then I thought, why even wait an extra day?  Each hour gives us a new opportunity.  It then occurred to me that even waiting an hour is limiting.  I could decide for change in the instant that I caught myself sloughing off.   This was so exhilarating, it brought home, in a big way, the fact that every second of life is an opportunity for growth and change.  Every second is an opportunity to open up to new possibilities and new adventures.

Anytime we’re willing to grab the moment and do what we’ve been delaying doing, the moment becomes so energized, it becomes absolutely electrifying.  So often we experience time as a weight, something to be gotten through.  But, if we can plug into the energy of any given moment, the moment becomes alive and we become alive with it because we’re actually creating it;  living in it.  It’s only when we see ourselves as different from time, that time feels heavy.

Think of what it’s like when you’re involved in something you truly love doing.  For those moments, no matter what the clock says, time doesn’t exist.  That’s because you’re actually living time.  You and time have become one.

To experience this pulsation, try sitting with your eyes closed, your back straight, feet flat on the floor, and take three deep breaths, inhaling very slowly and gently, and exhaling very slowly and gently.  Then, with your eyes still closed, try to hang on to a second.  Feel it pulsate as it dissolves into the next second, and the next second and the next second.  You can’t hold on to it.   Feel the life force of each second as you try to focus on it.  Know that each second is filled with consciousness and feel its aliveness.

If you want to expand this into a longer meditation and deepen your focus, you can silently repeat to yourself, “breathing in one as you inhale, breathing out one as you exhale, breathing in two as you inhale, breathing out two as you exhale,” coordinating each count with the breath.  Continue doing this until you reach ten.  You may find that you’ve lost the count before you reach ten.   In this case, you can either begin again, or if you find yourself in a state of peace and silence, stay there.  You may even find that you have slipped into a state where time disappears.  When you come up from that state, you’ll feel relaxed, refreshed and very uplifted.  Any time you catch yourself struggling with time, or feeling bored or anxious, try the above technique.  If you like, you can extend the count for as long as you like.  Experiment.  See what happens.

May your New Year be filled with peace, love and happiness, and the adventure of knowing that each moment holds the potential for a new future; a fresh start.