Just shy of a month now, and 2012 is off to a roaring start. I’m not one for making resolutions, most especially at New Year’s. It’s a time that finds us all reminiscing about the previous year’s events, most often focusing on the negative and glazing over all the wonderful things and deciding that we will change, grow, become better so that this year, the new one, will be the best year. But then you hit a hurdle and that hurdle is followed by an obstacle and suddenly we find ourselves wishing and hoping for the mythical future where things will change, the light at the end of the tunnel where we’ll have grown, and become idyllic versions of ourselves.
In my (albeit limited) experience, once you’re in the tunnel you begin to dwell on how dark it is, how you can’t see, you start to believe that the light is too far. Thing is, there is no tunnel, not really.
Happy and content are not things you should aspire to be in future, they are something you decide to be in the present and then work to change whatever needs to change in order for you to feel content with who you are. You might not be able to control circumstance and the world around you, but you can certainly control how you react, you’re never going to be happy if the glass is always half-empty.
This year, as last year, and the year previous, I am making an effort to light three sparks every single day – even the really dark ones, I will:
- …accept and love myself as I am, 100%, even the neurotic paranoid crazy bits.
- …not dwell on the past. All the time you spend dwelling on the past, is time you waste in your present. Your past may influence who you are, but it does not define you. You decide who you are, no one else.
- …love. “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” -Eden Ahbez
Some days I succeed on all three, some days only two, some days one, and some days none, but every day I try and most of the time I’m not in the dark. So I guess it’s working.
