New Year, Every Year

By ABHA IYENGAR

I have been thinking a lot more this year about the New Year and the resolutions we make. They are all about what we consider as failings, or drawbacks, we have and how we are going to change for the better. I wonder if we ever think about praising ourselves for the good things that we are, or even for the changes that we have brought about over the years through our focus on becoming better people. If we do not, then I believe we should.

This should be the first step.

Some of us may have thought about becoming more focused with our work and others less focused – it’s all about change. It is all about what we want that is new, or different in our life, and how we can change ourselves to initiate that coming into our life, or being brought into our life by someone else because of the new person we have become.

Sometimes it may even be that, despite our best efforts, we are not been able to become different or new in our own eyes, and we are still struggling. We vow to continue with renewed vigour into the next year with all our efforts. Whatever it is, and whichever place we are at with ourselves in our scheme of things, what the coming of the New Year generates for us is hope. The hope that now we can start afresh. Even the oldest among us gets some fire raging in their bones, and some colour on their cheeks, and some vim in their thoughts -- of what the New Year promises to us, and what we promise to ourselves in the New Year.

I believe that as we step into yet another New Year, we must consider a few things that may help us to be happy and contented in the coming days, even as our lives surge with hope.

Lose the Baggage. We carry so much of the past with us. “We live in the past and commit hara-kiri of the present,” said a young, wise friend of mine. As we move into the New Year, we must leave all thoughts of the past behind, both the joys and pains -- for the past is dead and gone. We have to make the most of the present, of the given moment. Only then can we surge forward with energy.

Lose the Anger. We often carry a lot of anger within us. It maybe against others, or it maybe against ourselves. It maybe for small things, or for things that matter a lot to us. We have to let this anger disperse into the “vyom” [nothingness], and into the “brahmaand” [Cosmos]. It is through calmness and serenity that we will achieve what we want.

Power of Prayer. Find the ability to pray, to be thankful for what we have, and for what we are. It is when we accept ourselves that we take the next step to see where we can go from there.

Power of Innocence. Innocence means so many things. It is to understand the simple joys of life. The power of being happy that we are alive, acknowledging the fact that we can breathe and eat, and enjoy the beauty of nature. To greet each day with the innocence of a child who will skip in the Sun and look for tadpoles in the puddle.

Power of Laughter. When we forget the darkness and gloom and let our life ring with joyous laughter, we bring abundance in our selves. We get filled with happiness despite whatever life holds for us.

Self-realisation and Spirituality. I have found that if we keep the above in mind, we are on our way to self-realisation and spirituality, which springs from inner peace and the joy of life.

Every year, when the New Year comes, I make some resolutions, some survive and others die by the end. However, this year, I move into the New Year with the following general, but far-reaching, resolutions -- lose the baggage, lose the anger, and embrace prayer, innocence and laughter.

I hope you will join me as we step lightly into yet another New Year.