Happy New Day

December 31, 2012

It’s wonderful to see celebrations of an upcoming new year by so many people. All around me people are setting resolutions for 2013, thanking family and friends for an amazing year, reflecting on actions in the past year and looking ahead to intentions set for the next year. It’s a fantastic reminder for me of the cycle we should go through every day. Let’s be thankful for the loved ones in our lives, and the blessings we receive every day. Let’s aim to be better people today than we were yesterday.

Goals, resolutions and plans are excellent (though Leo Babauta’s goal-free living is intriguing) and having them can be important, but focusing on the present is key to reducing stress and being happy.

Days like New Year’s Day, Christmas, Remembrance Day, and Thanksgiving are excellent excuses for even those who do not commemorate them to reflect on the values and qualities they represent and try to live them every day. I don’t think I’ve taken New Year’s Day very seriously for a number of years now, opting instead to write back something along the lines of “Congratulations to you as well on a new Gregorian calendar year” to well-wishers. This year, I think I will take it seriously. I will use it to mark a new day and commit myself to being a better person. God-willing, I will take January 2nd just as seriously, and January 3rd and the remaining days of my life. One of my desires is to regularly wake in the early hours of the day to meditate. That probably won’t happen if I’m up after midnight, and so it’s off to bed! I hope the midnight texts don’t wake me.

Happy New Day!