Ringing in the New Year with a “New” Foundation – Self Love

Ringing in the New Year with a “New” Foundation – Self Love

As 2009 approaches us, I stand back and I count my many blessings. I especially, gratefully look at the health of my own mom. My mother is truly a miracle. She has overcome many things in this life, culminating in an aortic dissection at the beginning of 2008. (This is the same illness that ended John Ritter’s life.) And looking at my mom and her journey, I know that one of the few things we can count on in our lifetime is the unrelenting, march of time.

As we get ready to close out this year, we are invited to sit quietly and consider the year before – to reflect upon its triumphs, its joys, its sorrows and its struggles. Whatever regrets and whatever lessons you may have learned in 2008, each and every moment of it was a lesson, and if you let it be, a blessing. Our past can be what we choose. It can be wings, or it can be an unmovable weight that paralyzes us and holds us back.

By releasing 2008, we create a launching pad for everything that will come to us in 2009, and we set up a real opportunity to ring in THIS New Year with a plan for health and happiness. A plan – instead of the same old list of resolutions. So let’s take a quick minute and look at SOLUTIONS instead of re-solutions. Let’s look at the rough rocks of 2008 and turn every single one of them into the diamonds of 2009.

The #1 Resolution: Lose weight. While the number one thing on most people’s New Year’s resolution list is to lose weight, precious few of us are able to hold onto that objective for even 30 days. So what are we to do? What kind of a plan would change that goal to “gaining health” instead of losing weight? We know so much about health and weight in today’s world. In fact, we are inundated with information. So it certainly isn’t a lack of knowledge that holds us back.

Perhaps it is the simple idea of what we are “going” to do, instead of what we are DOING. What we are NOT doing is simple. We are not loving ourselves enough to eat right, exercise and set the right example for our families. We need to love ourselves so much. We need to create a deep shift to deeply love who we ARE and who we will be in the New Year. Think about that deep unconditional love you feel for your children, your significant other or a friend. And now turn that love onto yourself.

· Start each day with a commitment to yourself in service of the well being of others.

· Begin each day with a prayer and a request of the universe that you NOT FORGET that the foundation for every choice and decision is now to be on different footing – it is to be self-love.

· On a foundation built of self-love, we will choose healthy, positive people who support us.

· On a foundation of self-love, we will eat nourishing foods that energize us so that we may accept, vibrantly, all opportunities and all challenges.

· On a foundation of self-love, we will make courageous decisions that honor our deepest wishes and dreams.

And the truth is this: You can’t un-ring a bell. Once your base of self-love is proclaimed, it exists. Nothing you can do can un-create that foundation. Even a “slip” into old or unloving behavior will simply become an opportunity to release and to begin again. And be prepared, self-love becomes a beacon to those around you. It empowers us to make choices with our time and our resources in very different ways, and THAT is truly inspiring to the world at large. This year, put “Baby New Year” and all of his resolutions safely into the hands of Father Time and set the stage for your own life, renewed and reinvigorated with love at its helm.

I agree with the Beatles, wholeheartedly; they wrote and sang, “Love is all you need,” and I send you this message for this wonderful New Year, “Self-love is all you need”.

To your journey,
Laura Fenamore, CPCC and Body Image Mastery Mentor

http://www.laurafenamore.com/