2016 resolutions

             Oh those fashionable New Year's resolutions.  Do you make them?  Do you keep them?  Do you drop them?  Yesterday, while in Manhattan, I was interviewed on the street by a Japanese TV station about New Year's resolutions.  I told them that I don't make them, and that the success rate of keeping to them isn't terribly encouraging.  According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute about half of Americans make them, and about half of those maintain them for the first half of the year; 39% of people in their twenties achieve them, while only 15% of people over 50 do. 

            All of that doesn't mean that I am without gumption and don't have goals.  It's just that I don't feel I need to wait until December rolls around to make a plan, although better December than never.  In order to stick to a resolution you have to make it a habit, and a habit builds after about a month of doing something regularly.  And the resolution has to have a deep and long-term meaning so it's still attractive come February or March.  Another piece to the success of any resolution is some kind of a contract with yourself so that you cannot back out so easily.  You might announce your plan out loud to some family members or friends.  That way it becomes more difficult to pull out than if you kept it to yourself.  Or reward yourself for sticking with it.  Earlier this year I absolutely wanted to finish the third-to-last chapter of my upcoming book and I love shoes.  The contract with myself was that I got to buy a new pair of shoes once I finished that chapter.  It got done pretty fast!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you meaningful and happy days with your loved ones this Christmas.  

windy power

       While solar has been all the rage for a few years now wind power is following close behind.  The Paris Climate Summit was a clear success, even though it comes a bit late in the game.  So now we have to hustle.  We are putting more solar panels on our house in the spring so we can be net zero and the solar energy covers our entire energy consumption - our current array covers 45%.

            According to the Scientific American it was announced yesterday that the highly appealing 30% tax credit for solar and wind installations (on parts and labor!), that was supposed to run out at the end of 2016, has been extended through the end of the decade for now.  This is a huge incentive in combination with state tax credits and NYSERDA credits (for those who live in NY, as each state has different incentives).

            Wind power will now be following in solar's foot steps for homes, small businesses and farms.  The NY Times just reported that small rooftop wind turbines are being installed along the same model as residential rooftop solar panels, many of them in leased deals.

            Go for it, whether solar or wind! 

earth literacy

             I believe that earth literacy will come to us eventually in a different form than simply recycling or composting more, eating a bit less meat, using a bit less plastic, and perhaps even biking to work.  As long as we believe in a competitive paradigm, - you need to lose so I can win  -, we are proceeding along the lines of "same old same old."

            Earth literacy means opening up to a cooperative paradigm where not money is the highest value, but cooperation, compassion and the greater good of all. 

calm in the face of the storm

    Yesterday I surprised myself and learned a new emotion.  I had a very nice and relaxing yoga class that morning.  After class, though, as soon as I turned the ringer of my cellphone back on, I found several messages from my husband who was trying to track me down to tell me he had lost his wallet (oh no!) and to cancel all of his credit cards.  Ok, sooo - panic?  No, not this time.  I stayed supremely calm and quickly analyzed the situation.  My heart stayed the course, my mind remained clear.  Luckily, he doesn't carry much cash, nor debit cards, nor house keys in his wallet.  Phew.  Credit cards yes, a few, license and registration yes.   Since I was across from the bank I cancelled the first two cards in person, check, done.  Next I had some errands to do - which I decided to do nevertheless.   Back home I cancelled the last card.  Then I found out that you can reorder a replacement license online and that DMV issues a downloadable temporary license.   Check, done.  I was able to email my husband replacement documents and copies of registration and other necessary items within a few hours.  Thank you technology.

            I tend to panic easily and this is the first time I experienced absolute calm and composure in the face of a (minor) crisis, as well as complete confidence that there would be no major outfall.   It was a very good lesson and  I set myself a good example.  

when time stands still

Time is elastic.  This morning my daughter mentioned that this Sunday already marks the 3rd Advent Sunday before Christmas - time flew since Thanksgiving. 

            Yet, when we were children the time period between the 1st Advent Sunday and Christmas seemed to last forever.  And in the popular Astrid Lindgren series The Children of Noisy Village the boy Lasse, with all of his ten years of wisdom, exclaims that it's all that waiting on Christmas Eve until it finally gets dark and the festivities begin that makes your hair turn gray. But when you are sick in bed, or are in pain, or are anxiously awaiting exam or test results time stretches like gooey hard-to-pull taffy. Time becomes an issue when we think about it, when we try to will it along to a moment in the future. 

            Time molds itself around your mindset.  You have probably heard the saying "time flies when you are having fun."  When you are in the moment and completely immersed in an activity you love, dancing, spending time with friends, working on a craft, or anything else you truly enjoy doing, time is not an issue, it's as if it stood still.   Those are the moments we want to become aware, cultivate and create more of.

three elements of health

      For years I have pondered what makes us sick and what heals us.  What is the body's healing mechanism?  Could we heal if we simply ate a superior diet?  Would we heal if we got enough exercise and a good night's sleep?  Would we heal if we cleaned up our emotional house all the while eating crappy foods and living a stressful life?

            My conclusion in a nutshell and in order of priority is this:  The physical, and tantamount being sleep, comes first and is the basis for anything else.  Without a good night's sleep (sleep I said, not energy drinks) the body can't even begin to do repair work, be it physical or mental.  Moving your body is secondary to sleep and it is essential to identify with the movement (think gardening, dancing, chopping wood, running around with your children, as opposed to going to a gym as a chore).  Next is diet.  A superior diet (no sugar, low or no grain, lots of greenies and raw stuff, no processed foods, only grassfed or no meat) is crucial for replacing damaged cells with healthy ones and promotes clarity of thinking and natural weight control.  Without a healthful wholesome diet your damaged cells will simply soldier on.  #1 and #2 are the easy ones to change, at least relatively; #3 is the one that requires hard work.  This crowning element of the healing process consists of "checking under the hood," as author and coach Cheryl Richardson calls emotional spring cleaning.  It involves examining and shedding self-sabotaging beliefs, limiting fears, dealing with emotional trauma - clearing your emotional attic. All this emotional muck creates stress and stress kills because it dumps too many stress hormones into your body on a continuous basis, which damages your cells.  This work can be so profound and may need to be so drastic that you actually have to become "someone else," as researcher, chiropractor and author Joe Dispenza put at the recent Hay House conference I attended.   

            Ready?

purely for pleasure

             It's time to put your bird feeders out, birdseed, tallow blocks and all.  But, mind you, it's not for the birds, it's really for you. 

            A few years ago we attended a talk on birds and bird feeders and learned (I didn't know this) that bird feeding, whether in the winter or year round, is really not a charitable act to save the poor birds from starving otherwise.  The birds were around before you and I came along with our bird feeders and survived the winter just fine.  They are not relying on our seeds.   Instead, we learned during the talk, bird feeders are strictly for our own pleasure - me-perspective allowed. 

            We attract the birds for our own enjoyment.  And what's wrong with that?  Nothing.  Life is about experiences.  I love watching the birds fluttering around the feeder, as do our cats from behind the window.  The birds' colors are especially beautiful and bright when there is snow on the ground.  We placed our bird feeder so we can observe it while sitting on our living room sofas.  I've got a whole case of bird seed in the basement for a long winter of bird watching enjoyment.

gratitude as a habit

It's good to give yourself a pep talk every once in a while.  We tend to forget how good we have it when the going is good, and it's easy to hone in on the negative when yin changes to yang.  Why not practice some gratitude on occasion - it may just turn into a habit.  Gratitude is the door to contentment, as they say, and it is a timely thing to practice when spirits are high during the holiday season (just keep it going when January rolls around).

            Listing things you are grateful for is one thing.  A 3-step practice I like even better is one Christiane Northrup proposes in her book Goddesses Never Age:  Brag, be grateful, and let yourself desire something. 

·      Think of an accomplishment you can be proud of

·      Think of something you can be grateful for

·      Think of something to wish for

            A woman in my yoga class this morning smiled when she came in, then explained that she just found a piece of paper in her pocket with five things she was grateful for, and which she wrote down when she did the exercise a while ago.  Why not write your thoughts up and collect them in a jar?   Or distribute them among some coat pockets to find them later and smile?  Or ask the three questions above at the dinner table?  Or when you sit together with some friends?

think from the end

This is powerful!  And it let's you imagine and manifest with a lot more freedom and a lot less constraints.  Instead of racking your brain how on earth you are going to get there -wherever that is - turn the process around. 

Imagine what you want to achieve - that Maserati you absolutely want to drive, those friends in high places you believe you deserve, the pool you always wanted - but don't worry how you're going to get there.  Just kidding about all that material stuff, although that works, too.  You can start small just to test how it works and then make your goals bigger.   I always ask for a parking spot near where I need to go and am almost always lucky.  This morning I woke up with an uncomfortable backache.  My body reminded me that I hadn't been to yoga in a while.   So I went to yoga and casually mentioned my achy back - you do need to ask the universe for what you need, it does not guess your thoughts.  Well, I had the most beneficial yoga practice and it felt as if it were custom tailored just for me.  My back is restored and I am pain free. 

Imagine that new job with the nice boss, the creative team, near your home, with a good salary, or whatever else you want to manifest.  Author Mike Dooley compared the process of thinking from the end to a GPS system.  You put the destination in and then watch how the GPS aka universe finds the fastest way to get you from A to B.  And be careful what you wish for ......