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When you Google “mindfulness,” the definition that comes up goes as follows:

“A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”

We know mindfulness is important to achieving the life we want to live, but with all the hype of a new year, how can we make mindfulness and growth a priority for 2022?

Step one: Focus on the now.

The first step in starting the new year with mindfulness begins with this question: How do we start to focus on our awareness and be present within each moment?

Well, by starting to focus on the coming new year, we are already taking ourselves out of the present and guiding ourselves to focus on the future instead of right here, right now.

Forget that on a specific date and time the year changes from 2021 to 2022, and instead, focus on right now: What do you want to feel and create within this moment?

We begin to focus on right now instead of the day the clock and date turn so that our subconscious mind gets into alignment that this exact moment is happening right in front of us, not somewhere off in the future that keeps getting further away. You become empowered right now to be able to act on the life you want to create.

For example, if you want to lose weight and become better with savings and finances, don’t wait until after the holidays—start right now. Save a dollar a day, do a short walk around your block, get started now to do the things you think you’ll do when a particular day comes. So, by the time the “new year” gets here, you are already in momentum with habits and seeing results that are occurring for you to keep on going instead of never starting.

That is why the first way to begin setting yourself up for mindfulness for the new year is to treat this moment right now as the new year.

Step two: Create a daily mindfulness practice.

For anything to happen within your life, have a practice and rituals where you connect inward to feel what is happening inside you instead of simply ignoring, numbing, or bypassing your feelings by overdoing.

You must create a space for stillness and silence so you can be guided into a mindful state. However, this shouldn’t be a goal on a specific date: “I will start being mindful on January 2.”

The moment your mind has the thought of wanting to be aware, that is the moment to stop whatever you’re doing, no matter how inconvenient it may appear, and sit in stillness for a minute or two. As you hear that thought, your body, mind, and soul are communicating to you that they desire presence for you to hear or feel a message that will guide you to achieve the type of life you want.

Step three: Begin to be in a constant state of reflection on how you are feeling.

We move in a high-speed world used to the McDonald’s fast-food service culture. Meaning you want something, you can get it within moments.

We often want to feel happy, fulfilled, or excited within moments of finding out something tragic, or for some reason, not meeting our goals. We want to feel the excitement of all these changes we will make and goals we will achieve out there over the future new year. While we ignore the fact right now we feel unwell or dissatisfied with our life.

In truth, it’s the present moment that allows us to take different actions instead of waiting days or weeks. Begin to tap into this greater sense of awareness that you can create time to feel how it is you are feeling about life right now—be present with that. Then, from this present newfound awareness of how you feel, what is bothering you, or what you enjoy doing, take action at this moment to empower yourself to start the new year at this moment, not when the clock switches to midnight.

Learning to become present in this “now” moment, to then act from a space of what we can do today to live a different life, is the only way we will sustainably achieve our new year’s goals. Everything else will be short-lived or an illusion as we keep pushing out our dreams and desires to a future date.

I hope this serves.

I love you,

Colleen