Four New Vows for the New Year (2016)

This post is also available in: Hindi Marathi

Resolve to increase your Inner Strength and the rest will follow:

Message from the founder of Tejgyan Global Foundation, Sirshree, on the eve of the new year…

Most of us make New Year resolutions. We promise ourselves to improve our health and finances. Most often, the resolutions do not last long, leading to frustration and a feeling of failure. Eventually we give up on these resolutions. New Year resolutions don’t have to end this way. We just need to first work on the missing link. A strong resolve to develop your inner strength, your spiritual power is the right first step to take. Inner strength will help you follow through on your resolutions. The following four vows will refine your inner strength and feed your soul. These resolutions will not only make you spiritually strong, but, in turn, they will show cascading positive effect in other areas of your life.

1. The vow to heal your mind: Most of us understand the importance of having a fit body. While that is important, complete health is when both the body and mind are healthy. In pursuit of physical fitness, several of us tend to ignore the importance of having a healthy mind. A healthy mind is empty of any wounds, unwanted memories, or negative imprints. You can cleanse and empty your mind from all of these   through the practice of forgiveness. When you find yourself irritated, fearful or filled with negative emotions, bring these emotions to your sphere of attention and forgive yourself for harboring these emotions.  Recall all the negative emotions you went through during the day such as frustration, helplessness, anger, fear, disgust, etc. and release them.

As you forgive and release those emotions, tell yourself, “Let go… Let go… I won’t hold onto anything… I am letting go of all the bondages. I am letting go of whatever the subconscious mind has held onto. I surrender these emotions to God and seek forgiveness. I am liberated from these emotions. Whatever happened was a result of circumstances and my understanding at the time. All that is now past. Let go. I forgive myself. I love myself.”

This New Year, promise your mind that you shall heal it.

2. The vow of connecting to your future: Our future manifests from our thoughts in the present. This New Year, periodically think about the future you want to create and what can you do NOW, in the present, to shape that future. The most important thing a leader can do for his people, a CEO can do for his company, is to quietly think about future of the company and its people and take actions in the present that positively impact aspirations for that future. This is something each one of us can do in our personal lives as well. As you quietly imagine the desired future, visualize what awaits you there. You may start getting intuitions about the changes you need to make in the present. You may feel it in your gut. Some of us may feel skeptical about this. However, quietly begin imagining the future. Think about the life you want to create, but think so in a peaceful, meditative state.

With frequent practice, even if you do it for a few minutes, you will begin to identify the intuition you get about your future. This will help you feel more certain and validated about the desired future. As you continue being led by intuition, you will realize how necessary and effective this practice could be for decision making and seeking divine direction.

This New Year, promise your future that you shall connect to it intuitively. 

3. The vow to unmask yourself: What would you say to someone wearing a mask and applying make-up to the mask to look beautiful? That seems irrational but that is how we deal with our emotions. When you are angry you try to find someone to blame for your anger or you try to rationalize it. Blaming others or trying to rationalize it is similar to applying make-up to the mask. Find the real reason for your anger. Analyze the root cause of this anger. Maybe, anger is just a mask and beneath the anger could be your fear or some sort of weakness. Anger and fear are just examples. You may practice this for every emotion. Instead of suppressing whatever emotion has come up, think about the underlying cause and live through the underlying emotions completely.

Understand that emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, stress etc. are manifestations arising out of past experiences in the subconscious, our patterns, assumptions or merely ignorance of the truth. As you become more aware and begin practicing this root cause analysis, you may realize the underlying causes of the manifested emotion. An act of aggression, could be resulting from a thought, “What will people say?” By thinking about the underlying cause of emotion you will unmask the emotion, and begin to take ownership of that emotion. You will stop blaming others as the cause of your emotions. Contemplating on the real cause of every emotion could be a very effective and pragmatic spiritual experience. As you unmask emotions, heal them through forgiveness using the method described in the vow to heal your mind.

This New Year, promise that you shall not mask your true self.

4. The vow to decode your master lesson: Certain patterns or incidents recur in your life till you learn the underlying message or lesson nature is trying to teach you. Being repeatedly charged for a traffic violation, falling sick often, experiencing fear every time you are asked to speak in a group, finding a difficult boss in one job after the other, are some examples of recurring incidents. We must contemplate and fix the underlying causes of these instances. These incidents will continue to occur until you resolve the root causes. These incidents happen to teach us some lessons about laws of nature or life. There are lessons and there are master lessons. Decoding your master lesson and transforming yourself is the purpose of your life on Earth.

Master lessons can be learnt from the single biggest recurring pattern or issue in your life. For instance, if your master lesson is to muster courage and resolve situations instead of running away from them, you will find yourself constantly in situations where you will feel like running away from things until you build the courage to resolve such situations. If your master lesson is to transcend beyond ego and experience your true self, you may find every small incident hurts your ego. For some, the master lesson could be improving communication skills, for some it could be patience, for others it could be self-reliance. Contemplate to identify your master lesson and take action to learn from it. When you learn your master lesson, you will experience the true satisfaction of a life well spent on Earth.

This New Year, promise Mother Earth that you shall unlock your master lesson. 

Practice these four vows to develop your inner strength. As your inner strength develops, you will be able to keep all your other resolutions as well. May 2016 be a year where you scale great heights of spiritual success through these vows.

~ Sirshree

Sirshree is the founder of Tej Gyan Global Foundation. For more information about the foundation and its retreats, visit tejgyan.org