The New Year is a time to look ahead towards the accomplishment of our goals. As we move forward in the months ahead, we may find that the biggest obstacle to growth is falling back into old patterns of behaviour. To avoid this pitfall, let us make a new resolution to become more successful in fulfilling our dreams by forgetting the past. We do not want to erase our good memories as they encourage future growth,but let us forget the bad memories. Thinking about painful incidents from our past often leads to dwelling on thoughts of anger, hatred, revenge, regret, and other negative thoughts.Time is wasted in reliving what has already happened rather than in moving forward to implement our future plans.When we keep replaying the same painful remembrances — which become like bad movies — we lose precious time to write new, happier movies for our future.Conversely, when we forget the past,we can begin the New Year with a clean slate to write the good we want in our future. The tendency of many people is to repeat the same negative patterns of behaviour.
In doing so, the same forces that may have led to failure in the previous year repeat themselves.
However, we want to inculcate new positive behaviours. By continuously thinking about past failures, we tend to engrain deeper impressions into ourselves and reinforce those behaviours. Instead, we should practice new habits that will lead to better results.We can consider our situation in this way:When we have a wound,we have to leave it alone to let it heal. If we keep picking at it,we reopen that wound,making it worse. Similarly, if we have a wound from past failures or emotional upsets, by replaying them in our mind we keep the wound fresh. If we want it to heal,we must forget about what caused it. For those of us who are setting spiritual goals for the New Year, yet we have not put in appropriate meditation time in the previous year, let us forget about the last year’s schedule. Let us make a new schedule for daily meditation. Furthermore, if we have not lived up to the ethical virtues in the past, let us forget about what we did last year, and begin anew to lead a life of nonviolence, truthfulness, purity, humility, and selfless service. If we harbour any anger towards anyone, let us forget about our anger and the situation that caused it, and let us start anew with that relationship.
Each day in the classroom, teachers have students erase the previous day’s work from the board so that there is a clean slate to post the new lesson. Similarly,we can erase last year’s negativity, anger, and hurts to start the New Year with a fresh slate. On that slate we can write a future containing a schedule of regular meditations, plans to live the ethical virtues, and positive steps to achieve our goals. If we do so, we will find that we have more time to move forward instead of pedalling backwards. We will find that at the end of the year, we would have moved farther than ever to reach our goals, and we will have done so peacefully, happily, and filled with optimism and joy.
In doing so, the same forces that may have led to failure in the previous year repeat themselves.
However, we want to inculcate new positive behaviours. By continuously thinking about past failures, we tend to engrain deeper impressions into ourselves and reinforce those behaviours. Instead, we should practice new habits that will lead to better results.We can consider our situation in this way:When we have a wound,we have to leave it alone to let it heal. If we keep picking at it,we reopen that wound,making it worse. Similarly, if we have a wound from past failures or emotional upsets, by replaying them in our mind we keep the wound fresh. If we want it to heal,we must forget about what caused it. For those of us who are setting spiritual goals for the New Year, yet we have not put in appropriate meditation time in the previous year, let us forget about the last year’s schedule. Let us make a new schedule for daily meditation. Furthermore, if we have not lived up to the ethical virtues in the past, let us forget about what we did last year, and begin anew to lead a life of nonviolence, truthfulness, purity, humility, and selfless service. If we harbour any anger towards anyone, let us forget about our anger and the situation that caused it, and let us start anew with that relationship.
Each day in the classroom, teachers have students erase the previous day’s work from the board so that there is a clean slate to post the new lesson. Similarly,we can erase last year’s negativity, anger, and hurts to start the New Year with a fresh slate. On that slate we can write a future containing a schedule of regular meditations, plans to live the ethical virtues, and positive steps to achieve our goals. If we do so, we will find that we have more time to move forward instead of pedalling backwards. We will find that at the end of the year, we would have moved farther than ever to reach our goals, and we will have done so peacefully, happily, and filled with optimism and joy.
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