New Year, New Path?
Or just adjustments to your path that reflect the new year.
Face it. Change is the one and only constant in the universe. Like it or not, change can, will, and does happen all the time. Most, you have little to no control over. That’s because you are not, nor ever will be, in anyone’s head, heart, or soul, save your own.
Also, most change just is. It’s not good or bad, positive or negative in and of itself. It just occurs. You’re healthy one minute, then suffer a massive infection so fast it makes your head swim. Trees fall. Lightning strikes. Cars crash. Relationships start and end. People are born and die. It is what it is.
But that doesn’t mean you are fated to suffer at the hands of an uncaring deity or fate or the like. When you become awake and aware of yourself, you can get clear about yourself. Knowing who, what, where, how, and why you are is easy. It’s simply a matter of active conscious awareness. Mindfulness.
Active, practical mindfulness is how you can choose your life experience. All you need to do to apply it is this: Be consciously aware, in the present, and examine what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, your intentions, if your approach is positive or negative, and what actions you’re taking. When you see these clearly, you’re empowered to change them if they don’t suit you.
From here, at the end of one year and the start of the next, do you need/desire to seek a new path?
Pause and reflect
One very important caveat to this. When you look at where you’ve been and how you got there, you should not look too deeply. Going too deep into this can cause you to second-guess what has already come and gone, become depressed if it didn’t go as you had hoped it would, or otherwise pull you from the here and now to the past.
The past is never viewed perfectly. It is seen with the lenses of nostalgia, bias, judgment, and other notions that don’t serve anyone. Why? Because the past has come and gone. You can’t undo it, redo it, or do it over. Sorry.
Pausing and reflecting is a look that doesn’t include digging too deep. From here and now, you look back at how you got to where you are now and how the past was part of that. Then, you can see if it’s usable in the now on the path you’re currently on. Or if it would be right for a new path.
Nobody traverses only one path in life. This is also tied directly to change. What lit you up in the past won’t necessarily light you up now. Who you are at 20 isn’t who you are at 40.
This being true, many people choose the new year to reevaluate their path and determine if it’s time to explore a new one.
New year, new path?
The first consideration I recommend is to look at what path(s) you’re on. See if the whole path needs to be altered, or just a specific aspect of it.
Also, consider if you are looking for a secondary or tertiary option to help your primary path along. Maybe you need to take a class, hire a coach, get some sort of certification, and so on.
A new path doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning an existing path. Instead, it’s all about choosing something new that feels right for who, what, where, how, and why you are. Or desire to be.
Again, start by being awake and aware, here and now, of your present, active, conscious mindset/headspace/psyche self. From there, you’ll have clarity about what any new path might be or if it would have value or not.
Only you know what is going on in your head, heart, and soul. While others can assist or influence you, ultimately, all choices and decisions are yours. Your life, your path(s). You alone know if the new year has brought a time to choose a new path, whatever form that might take.
And of course, you’re worthy and deserving of having, being, and doing this. Whose life is it anyway? That would be yours.
Happy New Year! Will you choose a new path in this new year?
This is the seventh-hundred-thirty-second (732) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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