Happy New Year 2005

After the last champagne cork pops, there you are with the reality of a New Year. How can you make it the best year ever? Follow these ten top tips for a Happy New Year and make 2005 your best year yet.

1. Realize that nothing is ever only as it seems. We all do have choices. The future is not fixed or carved in stone. Take time to re-define how you see yourself and others.



2. Positive thinking and expectation goes a long way towards what we experience and what we create. Thoughts are real; so develop the awareness of observing yours and notice how they work.



3. Promise yourself to get more in touch with you. Understand when it's time to do and when it's time to be; then a lot more will get done and goals will become easier to achieve. Make plans but leave room for the amazing and unexpected to happen.



4. Make time for love. Become an expert at loving, caring and nurturing yourself. When you do this, others will love you more easily and you them. Remember to love and accept yourself completely without condition.



5. Don't be a stranger; get to know people around you and those who pass in and out of your life. They each have their story. As we take time to know different people, we know and understand more of "ourselves".



6. Clear out your house and your life. Throw away, give away or sell everything you no longer need; anything that's broken or has passed its time of usefulness, even if it's a little painful to do so. As you let go, you make space for the new and draw more easily to you everything that you need in the present moment.



7. Get used to feeling good. Whenever you have a great moment or feeling, breathe it deeply call through your body. Fill yourself up with that feeling. You will find yourself having more good and great moments, and not living with the fear that they may be taken away or may not last. This is the first great step to experiencing a life and reality with "no more pain."



8. As you look back at last year and make plans and goals for this year, make a point of patting yourself on the back and giving yourself credit for all the good that you did do, even the very small things up until now. By praising yourself rather than scolding yourself for what you have done and where you are now, you will make it more possible and easier to achieve all that you desire.



9. Let yourself feel and let yourself care. Allow yourself to go with your heart and do the right thing even when it seems to make no sense, for inside of us all, we have a part that knows exactly what we are doing and what to do in all moments. Remember there are no mistakes.



10. Work through your pains and fears. Know that you are amazing, that you are - besides everything else - a free and powerful being. Let go often to stay in great shape and great balance, a key to having the best year yet.

By Petrene Soames

Petrene Soames is the author of The Essence of Self-Healing: How to bring health and happiness into your life (FleetStreet Publications - March 2001). She is a leading authority in healing and self-awareness, an inspirational speaker, a veteran television and radio guest featured in national and international press. She has worked successfully over the past 22 years as a consultant and therapist, helping others achieve their highest potential. Visit her web site at http://Timeismine.com or call (281) 363-9983.