Happy New Year from all of us at RLEI! We wish you lots of success, health, & happiness in 2015. Here’s how you can get what your heart desires in the coming year…

“A lot of people make resolutions about aspects of themselves they hope to change and improve for the upcoming year. The most common ones are:  spending more time with family and friends; getting more fit by dieting or exercising; getting more organized, managing money better; and volunteering more.

Will you be making New Year’s resolutions this year? For many of us, feelings of resignation stop us or take the fun out of it. Let me explain. Have you ever noticed how short-lived your new intentions are, or wondered what resolutions you could possibly make that really would make things better next year? The months go by and while some days may feel hopeful, others can be full of tension, anxiety, irritation, or dullness—especially in these crazy and uncertain times. So you might feel that resolutions are a waste of time and become resigned to that.

To bring in what can be a truly New Year, you have to find the “new” inside yourself, starting with new awareness and new ways of taking responsibility that make it easier to achieve your intentions. You can begin by befriending your shortcomings, starting to see them less in terms of personal failure (or having done “bad”) and more in terms of densities or resistances—old patterns, stored at the unconscious level. It’s so easy to beat ourselves up for our shortcomings, but that makes things worse. It’s time to tame that inner critic. Compassion for yourself when old patterns resurface is taking responsibility and can make them easier to address.

Tip 1  –  Self-compassion isn’t automatic for most of us. Self-compassion needs to be practiced and is a good New Year’s resolution to make. 

Reactions to people or events can trigger strong emotions—and result in unrewarding consequences. When you find yourself reacting, go to your heart to help you “slow frame”—to slow down your thoughts and emotions so you can see them one at a time, and stop adding fuel to the fire of strong opinions and emotional stances. Then, try to bring your mental and emotional energy to neutral in the heart—a state of objectivity where you can allow new intuitive perceptions about the situation to unfold. New perceptions can be subtle, so listen carefully to your heart. Ask your heart intuition for a new, mature attitude about the situation.

Tip 2 – Neutral isn’t automatic for most of us either. Practicing “slow frame” after you react and finding neutral before you speak or act is also a great New Year’s resolution that can save you tons of energy and time waste.

What underlies most reactions are our “ego vanities”—over-identities, over-sensitivities, and over-attachments to how we’ll come out or whether a situation will turn out the way we think it should. New maturity isn’t about getting older; it’s about our capacity to self-regulate our emotions so they become the expressions of the higher qualities and power of the heart— like love, care, compassion, kindness, appreciation, forgiveness. When the mind and ego vanities are in control, rather than the heart, emotional energy tends to express as insecurity, frustration, stubbornness, worry, hurt and anger. However, as you find and “tag” those emotional vanities, it becomes easier to catch them the next time and divest them of their power.

Try to find a sense of humor if you discover more ego vanities than you bargained for. They’re not multiplying. They’ve been there all along, but now they’re getting harder to live with. Remember you aren’t alone—everyone has them. As you bring in the power of the heart, you bring in new intelligence to transform them.

People have talked about the power of the heart throughout history. When your initial effort is “from the heart,” it brings your mind and emotions into cooperative alignment, and this gives you more intuitive clarity, more strength and energy to achieve your goals. That’s why coaches say, “play from the heart” or “sing from the heart” or “put your heart into it.” Putting your heart into whatever you do gives more power, enjoyment and better results.

Tip 3 – Heart power is different from will power. So listen to your heart intuition on what resolutions to make and put your heart into them.

Will power is a mental activity. It can give you a little momentum, but then it fizzles when there isn’t enough heart behind it. Activating your heart power brings in the intuitive intelligence and power of your spirit, which is stronger than just trying to discipline habits or vanities from the mind. Research has shown that the heart sends powerful signals to the brain and rest of the body. Once understood and accessed, these heart signals give you more ability to take responsibility and make the changes you want.

New maturity also means staying consistent with practicing self-compassion, slow-framing and going to neutral, and putting your heart into it – especially when your feeling world dips or you feel like throwing in the towel and giving in to an emotional binge. But if you do, don’t add vanity to vanity by feeling bad. You can just go back and “re-start” –from the heart.

Tip 4 – All you need to do is practice and your likelihood of keeping your resolutions will increase.

That’s new maturity. Go back to what your heart really knows—the insights you’ve had and the times you have stopped your standard emotional reactions. Use those as markers of what you can do now. Appreciate the new intelligence you are gaining about your issues. With consistent practice, you’ll start to live life differently and surprise yourself with a truly “new” New Year.”

From “Keeping New Year’s Resolutions – 4 Heart Power Tips” By Sara, from Institute of HeartMath