Inner Practice: New Year Resolution 2022

A new year is always a fresh new start, as the energies of the past year passed on with time and a fresh

new page opens.

Many love to set resolutions at such turning points - at the start of new year, after a major life event or

simply when you know it is time.

I read in an article many years ago that resolutions don’t work, because after a while people always give up

what they have resoluted with such strong convictions at the start. To be honest, I was guilty of that as well

for some of my resolutions. They just simply fade away after some time and become the backdrop to all

other ‘highlights’ of my life. And the usual life just goes on. So that got me thinking.

The reason for resolutions is to change things for the better, whatever you believe it may be for your life. A

change in diet, a change in exercise regime, a change in speech, a change in behaviour, a change in

attitude. It is a change in course from the usual pattern that we have gotten so used and comfortable to, be

it serving us good or bad. Just like how it is much easier to go down the old sledding track that you have

created for yourself, you will not want to change course unless you choose to expend more energy and

determination to do so.

Therefore to resolute requires strength. Not simply the physical but the mental. And this strength does not

come from force, suppression or aggression. Why do you want to change? Is it because someone told you

so? Is it because you want to prove something to others or even the world? Is it because you want to make

a statement out of anger, jealousy and other attributes?

If the water for change comes from external, out of force, out of aggression, out of pain, out of spite, it is as

if spraying harshly buckets of water to a seed. It just drowns out the seed and no growth for change can

occur. If the water for change comes from external, out of persuasion, out of convincing, it too will dry out

in no time when the person doing the persuasion or convincing is no longer by your side.

The strength to resolute and maintain the resolution

And if this water for change nourishes from within, out of kindness, out of love for yourself, out of care for

yourself as a being, the seed for change will sprout naturally and beautifully in time to come. When that

time comes, resolutions no longer stay as resolutions, but as a new form of life seamlessly integrated with

you.

So do your resolutions, not out of anger, not out of spite, not out of ‘because he/she told me so’, but out of

kindness and love towards yourself. No one can do this for you. It can only come from you.

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