New Year's Resolutions: Change Your Life. Change The World. What Are Your Resolutions?

As we approach the New Year, many people are thinking about New Year's resolutions and making changes in their lives such as breaking bad habits or incorporating healthy habits such as exercising, eating healthy, having a more positive attitude, etc. into their lives. Currently, I'm reading a book entitled The Circle: How The Power Of A Single Wish Can Change Your Life by Laura Day. The chapter that I'm reading right now deals with bad habits, the origin of bad habits, and how to break them. I was so profoundly struck by the information presented that I decided to share this information with you. Have you made any New Year's resolutions? What are they?

Sadly most people never truly break their habits, no matter how hard they try. Year after year, they slip into the same patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Sometimes, one pattern is behind what they see as several unrelated incidents, and they never realize that they have been repeating the same script since childhood.

You each have habitual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that have been practiced for so long and have become so integrated into your life that you are no longer conscious of them. Indeed, much of your life is lived unconsciously through a patterned set of habits, some dating from before you were able to speak.

Modern times have become so complex and are lived at such a fast pace that you give over great chunks of your waking life to your unconscious: how you wake up, how you eat, how you get to work, even how you relate to others. Habits allow you to function on automatic pilot, saving you from the need to think about situations before you respond, saving time and freeing up your conscious mind to attend to more important matters.

To be sure, some of your habits serve you well. Others, however, serve only to reinforce the difficult patterns in your life. Indeed, your old reality has probably become embedded within your habitual patterns. Yet situations change, you change, and what formerly was a useful habit can now be getting in your way--without your awareness.

When we live too much through our unconscious patterns, we create unconscious lives. Your habits may contain forgotten meanings associated with them, meanings that keep you trapped in your old reality. Your waking-up habits may be infused with the anxiety or limitations of your childhood home. Your habits for greeting people may have developed from an old need to keep others at a distance.

When you embody your New Reality with The Circle, you will begin to discover habits and patterns you didn't know you had. You may notice for the first time, say, that when an attractive person of the opposite sex greets you, you look away and avoid contact. Or you may notice that when something good happens in your life, you reflexively seek out something bad to happen next. Awareness is the first step in change.

I'm really enjoying this book so far. It's filled with golden nuggets of information like the excerpt above. If you get a chance, please take the time to check out this book. It just might change your life. As Edgar Cayce stated many times, "The mind is the builder." Eleanor Roosevelt said it in a different way when she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." These are just two examples of how the power of the mind creates our own reality. This wisdom has been shared in many ways by many different people. It's as true today as it was when it was first uttered. How do you plan to change your life (that is, if you'd like to make adjustments)?


[edit on 26-12-2009 by gazerstar]

hmm i agree but shes missing a trick here,


habits i think in some of thos cases she mean "dna make up"


were not allway as in control as she seems to think "dna" heard of the fraise like father like son, etc we learn from are misakes, the dna make up we have been given from are perents and you have probly notised how much your like one of your perents more than the other if you have siblings thay will two. there fore you took over 50% of there genetics & dna,

but we continue though life making mistakes and learning are own trade in life, correcting your own very dna witch is linked to habits... eventually you become a better person as you get older you pass that down bringing them up in your own way, and so on...

anybody can change think of yourself as a brand new mac/pc you decide wot to install on it and do with it wot you like, your resposability to keep it free of junk & harmfull things? and lets be honest we have all messed that one up when we first had to get to grips with it all... same rules apply we learned from it all,

its true if you want something bad enuff you can achive it look at the piramids

another thing is she makes it sound so simple, in reality its not, dont sound like shes speaking for everybody, if deppreshing or stress sets in that also is a very tough spot to get yourself out as she said in this day n age where living it 100 miles a hour, there allmost no time for a wind down or to relive the stress, to couter act it we need as much time being happy n enjoying are selfs work hard play hard... but theres just not enuff hours in the day is there?

sounds very 1 dimentional when theres alot more to life than just saying ill change,

maybe i should write my own some day

Thanks for your reply. Of course, what I posted is just one excerpt from the entire book. I haven't read it all yet, and she may round out the basic idea in later chapters. What I gathered from the excerpt was that many of us are unaware of how our current habits might be affecting our decisions. The way I read it, taking the time to stop and think about why we do things or react in certain ways that ultimately do not serve us may make us become aware of where we are going wrong. I, certainly, have some knee-jerk reactions that stem from childhood. I think that may be part of conditioning. However, as a mature adult with more life experience, some of those reactions may not be appropriate in the adult world. For example, being fearful of being judged, or not feeling good enough, or that I might not deserve something because of a low-confidence cycle that I incurred in childhood, wouldn't serve me now in the adult world--especially since the original catalyst or unhealthy environment is no longer there to reinforce those feelings of inadequacy that might be holding me back from meeting new people, trying new things, or succeeding in life. Sorry for the ramble, but I hope that made some kind of intelligible sense.

Originally posted by gazerstar
Thanks for your reply.

Of course, what I posted is just one excerpt from the entire book. I haven't read it all yet, and she may round out the basic idea in later chapters. What I gathered from the excerpt was that many of us are unaware of how our current habits might be affecting our decisions. The way I read it, taking the time to stop and think about why we do things or react in certain ways that ultimately do not serve us may make us become aware of where we are going wrong. I, certainly, have some knee-jerk reactions that stem from childhood. I think that may be part of conditioning. However, as a mature adult with more life experience, some of those reactions may not be appropriate in the adult world. For example, being fearful of being judged, or not feeling good enough, or that I might not deserve something because of a low-confidence cycle that I incurred in childhood, wouldn't serve me now in the adult world--especially since the original catalyst or unhealthy environment is no longer there to reinforce those feelings of inadequacy that might be holding me back from meeting new people, trying new things, or succeeding in life. Sorry for the ramble, but I hope that made some kind of intelligible sense.

no problem gazerstar,

i was about to say the same about myself lol

lets stop both getting self contious and get it out are system haha

but yes again i totally agree with wot you said and for sure when you are young are minds/brains is like sponge pick up a bad habit then and your need help to ctrl alt del it from your system

so many people who had bad or poor up bringing really do suffer later in life ive seen it time and time again i really do not need anybody to tell me differently, but as i said before you can change it around and ive seen that also not that many but some, its your life after all you/we need to get to grips with that you cant move on it your living in the past can you, forgive n forget n move on,

the book does sound like a intresting read tho post another good snippet

LOL Don't worry. I'm not down on myself. Nobody's perfect or has all the answers no matter how stridently some people try to convince others that they are and do. I'm completely convinced that, at our core, everyone is basically the same. Everybody hurts. Everybody screws up. Everybody has fears, anxieties, and hopes, dreams, and loves. It's all part of the human condition. Here's another exerpt:

It is important to embody your wish because everything you think, everything you feel, and everything you do are reflected in the world. Our whole Universe is composed of atoms. These atoms all work together. When even a single atom changes, it affects its neighbors, which affect theirs, rippling out and ultimately affecting all of the other atoms in the Universe.

You, too, are composed of atoms. The atoms that compose you are constantly being affected by all of the other atoms of the Universe. Your atoms, in turn, are constantly affecting every other atom in the Universe. When the information in your atoms changes, this change affects every other atom of your being, of the world, of the people around you and the people at a distance, and of events past, present, and future....

Each of us is a transmitter and a receiver. When we meet a new person, a series of unconscious questions almost instantaneously runs through our minds....

The messages that this person is sending out are picked up by both our conscious and unconscious minds, which provide us with the answers to these questions within moments of making contact....

For better or worse, our signals become embodied in others and are reflected in their ideas and actions...

You are sending out signals all the time. The messages are blueprints for other people in the world to find you, react to you, and connect with you in a certain way. What you are is reflected in every person, action, and event around you. To a great extent, you are what you believe you are and the world responds accordingly.

Think of a tuning fork that creates sympathetic vibrations in others. Quite literally, whatever message you embody will resonate in others...

You continually send out the same messages and attract the same people and experiences toward you with little variation...

All thought, energy, and action have a pattern. If you are sending out a conflicting pattern, people respond to the confusion accordingly, and events may clash with us.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by gazerstar]

reply to post by gazerstar


Ask people in india what wishing does, it is so dumb to think positive thinking works.

Originally posted by andy1033
reply to post by gazerstar

 

Ask people in india what wishing does, it is so dumb to think positive thinking works.

Why deflect responsibility for self-work outward toward other people? Other people are not responsible for our inner healing. We are. I'm not getting onto you. I've just noticed this trend many, many times on here. One of the first things that I've noticed that some people do when discussing self-work is to project the topic outward toward other people. They say things like, "Well, what about these people over here?" I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about you and anyone else who reads this thread. We cannot help others unless we make a conscious effort to help ourselves first. Change your life. Change the world. It starts with you and me and ripples outward toward those 'other people' (in India or anywhere else) from there. Peace and Happy New Year.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by gazerstar]

reply to post by gazerstar


Good thread.

In order to change the world, we must change ourselves.

*S&F*

I'm going to call Mom more.

Thanks for that wonderful excerpt Gazestar!

Ironically, over the last month, I have also come to the realization that resolutions aren't about changing the way you act, they are about changing the way you think.

Take the multitudes of people who constantly say that their new year's resolution is to get in shape. A great resolution, but changing your attitude that influences your willingness and desire to get in shape would be much more beneficial.

Personally, my new year's resolution is to start acting rather than thinking. Too often I spend most of my time thinking about how I could make a difference, thinking of ideas, thinking about getting in shape, but I have never really acted upon these ideas. Instead of picking one of these actions, I am going to try and change the behaviour behind them.

Its time for me to step up!