Turning Over a New Leaf

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On New Year's Day we all opened the page on a new chapter in our lives. Another year has passed into history and we all have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean; to make a new start or as we say in the US, "turn over a new leaf".  Time has granted us a chance to have a "do-over" for that which we did not accomplish in 2011 as well as the opportunity to transform ourselves for the New Year.


Whenever your nation or culture celebrates the New Year; for all of us it is a time when many of us promise to stop a bad habit, change our behavior or perhaps just become a better person.  In the US these promises are called New Year's resolutions and they are made in the first flush of change,  a sense of all things being new and an anticipation of the endless possibilities that the "clean slate" of a new year has given us. Oh, we fully intend to do everything we resolve to do but after a few days or a week or two we "fall off the wagon" and are right back to our old ways.  Why?


Well perhaps because it's so easy to forgive ourselves if we fail!  Or perhaps we are trying to "put new wine into old wine skins".  Jesus The Christ used this ancient analogy to tell us that you cannot build a new life using the same state of mind that created the old one. The old world view, the old life, must die for the new one to be born.  


When we make those New Year's resolutions, often with a hangover from New Year's Eve, we really want to achieve them but we still have the same beliefs, attitudes and mindset we had on December 31st.  We haven't changed our thinking.  We are putting  the "new wine" of our resolutions into the "old wineskin" of an old, habitual state of mind.  Our chances of success without a total transformation of our attitudes, beliefs and habitual thinking is therefore close to zero.  


What to do?  Do we just condemn ourselves to be what we have been and, like Popeye in the cartoons, just say: "I am what I am" and never progress, never improve?  We can do that but it defeats the entire purpose of our being on this planet.  We are not here to vegetate or to stand pat; no - the entire purpose of this life is to grow in our ability to love, to learn compassion and tolerance and unconditional love.  At the end of the day, our lives are lived in order that we may finally understand that when pass judgement on another human we judge ourselves because he or she is us. We are here to become consciously One with each other and with God.  We are here to heal our belief in separation which is the root of all error, disease, war, poverty and struggle. 


How may we begin to make a new "wine skin" or mental state fit to receive and act upon our resolutions and desires for the New Year?  The disclaimer here is that it is simple but not easy - in fact, it is the hardest thing that humans do.  We have to change our minds; our subjective mind (unconscious mind) in particular. You see, your subjective mind is the motive force of your life. Your core beliefs are stored there.  Your attitudes live there.  Your deepest fears took root in your subconscious beginning in childhood.  Your memories, good or bad, live in your subconscious and influence your every thought, word and deed.  Your subconscious is the seedbed of your reality.  Unless you can reprogram your subconscious you cannot permanently change your life.  


Your imagination draws on your subconscious to paint it's pictures of fear or horror, success or failure, sickness or health.  What you imagine is what you create in your life.  When we say change your thinking and change your life we are saying that you must reprogram your subconscious by changing your conscious thought each and every hour of every day.  


If you are a pessimist by nature then you see the glass as half empty and will have a life that always fall short - is always half empty.  Want a full glass?  Then you must get over your fear of disappointment and pain and believe and see the world as an optimist does - bright, full of joy, abundance and love. Will you fall short and be disappointed from time to time? Yes, but if you prepare for the worst you will always get it.  If you prepare and expect the best, you will surely receive it as long as you can believe in it.  Optimists have better odds of a happy life; its as simple as that!


Faith is the key.  What do you have faith in right now?  Do you have faith that the world is a dangerous place just waiting to visit bad things upon you?  Well, it is done unto you as you believe!  Fear is really faith expressed negatively so what you fear you surely will experience in your life.  As Paul said:"Think only of things of good report....be you transformed by the renewal of your Mind". Exactly!


Here is a simple formula for transforming yourself this year:


1. Decide what you want to experience in the coming year. Don't worry about how you will get it - that is not your job; God will work through you to take care of the "how".  Your job is to make a clear, complete picture of your desire in your imagination. Once you are clear on what you want in this year, then you are ready to go to work. 


2. Make your desire for 2012 the focus of your thoughts every morning, noon and night. Think about your desire while you work, while you watch a soccer match, while you make love, while you eat or sleep.  Make your desire the center of your life until you achieve it.  This is how the rich become rich; not through luck, God's favor or chance but by focus - by becoming being one pointed and concentrating on their goal or desire. 


3. Think about your desire only in the present tense - say I have ......, never say I will have or I wish I had.  Live in the end of your dream or desire not the beginning.  Imagine what you will say when you get it, whom you will first tell about it, what emotions will you feel at the moment you know that you have achieved your desire. 


4. Express great gratitude for receiving your desire long before you receive it.  By being grateful before your desire takes form in reality, you are expressing not only appreciation to the Creator but showing absolute faith that it is already happening in your life.  Gratitude makes things happen, it is not just a thank you to God.


This is a good beginning, not all you will need to learn. It will begin the process for taking your dream and first making it a good possibility and then a reality as your faith builds and it becomes real in your mind.  The clearer you can see it and imagine yourself achieving your desire - the sooner you will experience it in your life.  


My wish for you and your family is that you have a 2012 filled with plenty, joy, love beyond measure, serenity, perfect health and your fulfilled desire gracing your life and the lives of those you love.  Happy New Year!


And So It Is!


Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian