Why do people stop at "the bad news" and never get to the core of the matter? Well, here's the core of the matter!

There is nothing in particular in the natural cycle of things that makes January 1st any different from any other winter day. Geocosmically, the solstices and equinoxes, solar eclipses, new moons and your own birthday are more vital times for new beginnings. In this society, however, we choose New Year's Day to make our list of resolutions and charge off into January with new projects for self-improvement.

I gave up this New Year tradition a long time ago because when I ran out of momentum, usually sometime in the middle of January, I had the irrational thought that I had to wait till next New Year to start again. Needless to say, there were many years when I didn't accomplish very much.

Then I gave my power to Mondays. Mondays would always seem to be the day when I was supposed to start new things. I put a lot of psychological energy into Mondays. So I took the cycle from "If I fail at my resolution in January I have to wait till next new year to start" to "If I don't make it by Tuesday, I have to wait till next Monday to start" . . . especially with diets and exercise programs. "I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna start on Monday." Monday afternoon I'm doing good. Monday night I slip up, so I have to wait for next Monday to start again.

Fortunately, I was introduced to the slogan, "Each day is a new beginning." So I was able to bring my focus of resolve from Monday to the start of the new day. But if I messed up in the middle of the day, I felt I had to wait until the next morning.

One day Goswami Kriyananda, my spiritual teacher, suggested that every breath is a rebirth. Every breath is a new life, a new incarnation, a new opportunity to do things differently. You could even say every thought is a rebirth because every time you have the opportunity to think a thought, you have the opportunity to think a new thought, something that you never thought before.

Here's a new thought: Guilt is probably one of the most devastating emotions we can bring into this process of resolutions. You know how it is: "I'm going to meditate every day this year. This is my resolution." Then all of a sudden you miss one day and you're devastated. "Oh, no -- I blew it! I'm a bad person. How could I have done this. I've broken my vow!" Then you realize you've spent so much time being guilty that you didn't meditate that day, either. Then you think, "I've blown it forever. I've ruined my next twelve lifetimes!" Even when it's not logical, we can begin to think that way. You have to be aware that there is not a guy sitting up there on a cloud with a report card going, "You get an F in meditation. You've blown the semester." It just doesn't work that way.

It's the next breath you take! It's the next moment! It's: "Oh, I forget to meditate; I'd like to meditate now" and you just go on from there. If we beat up on ourselves, it becomes an endless cycle of not doing what we wanted to do.

There's something rather unique, called "the rebound effect," about resolutions and vows that we make with great determined intention. As soon as I resolve to go on a diet, somebody buys me a gift box of Fannie May chocolate. This has to be one of the underlying laws of the universe. And if you resolve to get organized, some crisis comes into your life; a couple months later you say, "What happened to the nice neat desk and color coordinated file folders I visualized?" It's almost like a test where the universe says, "Are you sure you really want this? How willing are you to really do this?"

A couple of years ago, I thought I'd keep it simple. My one resolution was "to be happy." Right after I made that resolution, I was surprised by an article in the newspaper quoting a writer for a psychological journal. He said that people who are happy are really experiencing a mental illness. The rationale was because life is so grim and gloomy, if you're happy there must be something wrong with you. It caught me up short. What is the world coming to if happiness is a syndrome? If people who are really happy are just deluded? Yikes! I took a deep breath. "What I really want from life is to be happy," I re-affirmed. "To be joy-filled. To feel peaceful and uplifted."

We deserve to be happy. A loving, compassionate God, our loving father/mother/co-creator, wants us to be happy. Accept that you deserve to be happy, you deserve to be joyous, you deserve to be filled with bliss, you deserve to be at one with the divine within you.

When you can be in a good place, you're healing to others. When you are happy, healthy and sane, the people around you benefit. Your happiness is never yours alone. It spills out to surround you and fills others around you with joy, too.

Best wishes for a happy new breath, new thought, new year!

Marcia Sacks is a meditation teacher and professional astrologer in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. She has studied at the Temple of Kriya Yoga and was ordained Swami K. Adinadananda in 1979. For information on classes or consultations call (847) 882-3315.

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