When I am asked about what my new year resolutions are, the answer I give is pretty short. I don’t have any new ones. I’m just sticking with the old one. More on that later.
It’s not that I don’t think it is a good idea to get a plan in place for how to use the new year to achieve goals, it’s just that the approach many people take is not always effective.
Rather than making a commitment to get healthier by exercising more, cutting back on the junk food or recreational drugs, losing some of that extra fat, or beginning that creative project or business venture, and saving more money instead of frittering it away on things you really don’t need, even reading more books, consider viewing each day of 2025 as an opportunity to be kinder.
Think about it, if you were to prioritize kindness in all things, you’d turn all of the difficult challenges of the resolutions you’ve set for yourself on their head.
For example, when you are truly acting out of the mindset of being kind to yourself, you will naturally regard your body and your health with greater appreciation and respect. You’ll look at those extra calories you consume mindlessly in a whole new light. You’ll be reminded that taking them into your body, even if it’s just the sugary drinks, isn’t the way to be kind to you.
Self-kindness makes it a whole lot easier to stick to a health plan.
When you prioritize kindness, you’ll see the trash in your neighborhood, or in the parks you walk, as an opportunity to be kind to your fellow citizens and to the animals who make those areas home.
You can carry protein bars or beef sticks in your car to hand out to the people on the corner seeking money or help of some kind. Or have a spare coat or sweater in your car to offer them.
I came to this kindness awareness and practice about 10 years ago. My father’s father, who had been dead for 30 some years, came to me in a vision. He looked as I had remembered him in his youthful and vibrant days, slender, wearing a crisp madras shirt. Everything was in color, not black and white.
He was standing only a few feet beside my bed, and was there to tell me that the whole life experience is “about kindness.”
Now, for those of you readers who have not yet had such a moment as that, it may be hard to believe it is real. But it was just as though my grandfather was alive and breathing in the flesh. And that is how vivid and energetic the memory remains for me.
Prior to that spirit visitation I had been motivated by “The Wizard of Oz.” In the original film that I first saw as a child, the Wizard explains that it is not how much you love, but how much you are loved by others.
And so I was driven since childhood to live with that as my focus. You could imagine me as a teacher’s pet. I would do what I believed could or would garner love from others. It seemed like a wise guidance, and it served me pretty well, but as I got older I couldn’t help but feel that something was missing.
When you live to garner love from others, there is a tendency or at least the possibility, that you routinely will put others before your own needs.
What I learned from my grandfather blessing me with his wisdom is that he was showing me how to live at a higher spiritual practice. This simple teaching, it’s all about kindness, was a new approach for my life.
With self-kindess, and kindness toward others, most everything is possible. Yes it can generate great love from others, but for now consider it a life hack to help you adhere to all the other new year resolutions.
Email Giselle with your question at GiselleMassi@gmail.com or send mail: Giselle Massi, P.O. Box 991, Evergreen, CO 80437. For more info and to read previous columns, go to www.gisellemassi.com.
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