Changes

The Year is so young! And with that brings promises and hopes that fill the air with a fresh burst of energy. I want this year to be another pivotal one. I want to be different, better, and happier. Who doesn't?

One thing about changing oneself and attitude is that you're whole world will change as your perspective changes, therefore offering a whole new universe. Out with the old, in with the [sic] mew :)

Isn't this bunny cute? Again, it's from one of the cute therapy sites I visit (see my cute therapy post)

Changes I wish to practice to change myself this year:

• The Eightfold Path - I want to follow this as much as I can this year, every minute of every day. I also want to study the Four Noble Truths more avidly than the past few years. These correspond with Yogic beliefs, but I'm also getting into Buddhism since a good friend of mine gave me a book on Nichiren Buddhism. I'm still more oriented towards Yoga, however.
• Get deeper into yoga - studying the Eight Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga, doing more Hatha Yoga, meditating more, and using my time more profoundly through serious introspection and observation of my surroundings. There is so much time in my life wasted by laying in bed in too much pain to move or talk, I want to fill that time with meditation and contemplation.
  
• Study the Dhamapada - which is Buddhist/Yogic, the Bhagavad Gita more deeply than I have in the past, as well as several other texts on self amelioration, perspective, enlightenment, mental expansion, right living, controlling moods and thoughts, etc etc.
  
• Work on my self esteem through reading, introspection, meditation, affirmations, exercises etc.
  
• Lose weight through moderation, good choices, but not obsession - as food control obsession tends to set me up for a big binge.
  
• Get fit through as much exercise as my illness will tolerate without flaring up. This is a tricky one indeed.
• Do more good deeds, and focus on the good deeds people do to me instead of the bad ones.
• Write more to family.
• Try new therapies for my illness (as usual) in order to get off of disability some day.
• Clean more in little ways each day.
• Read more - I want to finish Shakespeare's complete works, Dante's Inferno, and tons of self help books, yoga books, meditation etc.
• Explore the city more, if my illness will allow.
• Write a novel.
• Be nicer.
  

Some of those are lofty goal - but aim high and you will at least shoot higher than a low goal you would have otherwise set. I have more goals, but those are the big ones. Or the big ones I can remember. Now I have to get to working on a reading.

Hugs to you all :)
Em