Wednesday, December 22, 2010

New Year Resolution: Self-Development Goal!

How are you going to start the New Year? Have you given a thought on how you are going to contribute? Are you planning on changing yourself for the better to make a difference in the world? Every year we say this and that about new resolution, how to make a difference then half way through the year we realize that we haven’t made a darn thing. Of course you can have many things on your list. Things such as losing weight, contribute to your circle of friends by convincing one or some of them (who seem to need to lose), to join you. The easiest way is to bring forth the advantage of losing weight and how much more beautiful that person will become.

On the subject of weight loss, I think that we should be at our optimal weight at all time. In these days of uncertain economy, job is not as easy to keep as 20 years ago. Anyone can lose his/her job at any moment, for that reason, we should keep a comfortable weight in order to be able to sell ourselves at a moment’s notice. In fact, studies have shown that stress can have a big impact on our weight and if you are stressed beyond measure, you will do things that you wouldn’t normally do that can be a factor in gaining weight. By pursuing a goal of self-development, you’ll be able to manage your life and help out people in your immediate circle.

While we are writing our list of things to do, don’t stop at weight loss, you can add stop smoking, stop gambling, stop drinking etc. since most of us know someone who have succumbed to one or two of these vices. My paternal grandmother was a heavy smoker and an alcoholic, she died of liver cirrhosis. The good thing with self- development is that the minute you start talking to your friends about it, they will throw new ideas at you and you can pick it up and go with it. I was talking to a lady friend at work about self-development and all, we discussed various things then the subject came to meditation and that when she told me that she does some kind of a pilgrimage every year to purge herself. When I asked her what she does, she said that she goes to a meditation camp to be among other like minded individuals pursuing the same goal of meditation for self-development and happiness.

What is interesting about the meditation camp is that it is available to anyone, it is a non profit organization where you go and learn about meditation and volunteer some of your time. I am registering for a few day sessions in 2011 and I think you should too. There are centers throughout the world. The name is Vipassana meditation. It is a method of mental purification which allows one to face life's tensions and problems in a calm, balanced way. It is also an art of living that one can use to make positive contribution to society. Vipassana meditation aims at the highest spiritual goals of total liberation and full enlightenment.

Why are we not where we wanted to be? I said in one of the previous articles, we can take our journey to self-development with as many burdens as we may have but we have to drop them one by one in order to feel free at the end. One way to do that is through various techniques such as prayers, meditation, forgiveness, compassion, love, humility and so on. We have to re-invent ourselves so to speak. If you have only known hate and how to hate, now is the time to learn how to love, if you have been abused and became an abuser yourself, now is the time to free yourself from all of that. There will come a time when you’ll wish that you had changed for the better, don’t wait for that time to come. Do it now! Do it today! If you have been blessed with love and compassion, share that love and compassion with others. You’ll be blessed with more love and compassion in abundance. You reap what you sow, or what goes around comes around, Karma, it is all about that natural law of the universe, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

As the Holidays approach, we will be with family and enjoying the moment. I wish that young adults will behave as young adults and not as young thugs, drunkards, gangsters and thieves. We don’t want to read in the news about people killed by drunk drivers, we don’t want to read about people being scammed of their credit cards, we don’t want to hear about home invasion, break and entering and all. The sad reality is, a lot of that will happen! What are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? Well the power that is wants our kids to become thugs by promoting gangster music and lifestyle as acceptable, the power that is wants our daughters to become prostitutes by gyrating half nude on TV in the name of self promotion. Well we all want to make it big and become rich and famous don’t we. That’s the price we have to pay! Is it not what they call to sell your soul to the devil? So what can we do to help our community during the Holiday Season? We can give to charity in the form of food donation, clothing or gift certificates to less fortunate family. We can become mentors to younger ones. We can become mothers and fathers to the orphans, etc. That alone will move us forward in our quest for self- development. The thing though, let’s not do it only during the Holidays but throughout the year! Remember that great movie, the blind side with Sandra Bullock, she did her part. Doing your part in your community will be a rewarding experience and something that will truly make a difference.

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