I love fresh starts. And do-overs. I think most people do. There’s the fresh start of 1 November, Winter Solstice, 1 January, Spring Equinox, my birthday….you get the idea. This 1 January, I am applying my Fresh Start medicine to specific things, like new covers for books that have been out for a while, breathing new life into them and…breathing out the attachment that those covers had to certain people no longer in my life. That feels good. I spent New Year’s Eve picking out gorgeous new covers for The Priestess Diaries, and I love the energy of those covers…the freshness of the new start while still honoring the stories.
It feels like…stagnant energy has become unstuck. That makes sense for people as well as projects. The impulses behind a new start or a do-over shake loose the stuck feeling. We WANT to move forward. We crave movement, even if we’re standing still, because if we just stand still, the world moves forward and we lag behind its movement and so move backward. We don’t discard the older project by breathing new life into it any more than we discard our own selves by changing up how we present ourselves and what we present to ourselves.
With this unstuck energy, I am already finding nice surprises. A short book I wrote months ago, GIVE YOUR LIFE DIRECTION, is suddenly finding new life and receiving attention from new readers. I suppose it could be tied to New Year’s resolutions and goals for 2012 but whatever the impuse behind the new attention, seeing it springing to life after all these months is gratifying and. well, makes me giggle a little (not a common thing!)
Here’s the original info page. If you’ve been a long-time reader of this blog, you’ll recognize some of the chapters.
Give Your Life Direction: 23 Life Coaching Tips to Motivate You, Re-Focus Your Time, and Overcome Resistance to Positive Change
by Lorna Tedder
Published by Spilled Candy Books
From the author…
The purpose of this book is to share with you 23 different methods I used to get to that “good place” I’ve sought all my life—from committing to taking real action to change, to making time in my life for the things I want, to stopping nosy people from giving me unwanted advice, to figuring out what works for me and keeps me healthy, positive, and happy.
There was a time when I felt as if I had no control over my life’s direction because I was letting everyone and everything direct me. I used to be uptight, over-stressed, anxious, and…in physical pain…from all the expectations I placed on myself and allowed others to place on me.
When I divorced after a long-term marriage, I began to search actively for a different way to live my life—not just more productively (because I was already very productive) but with serenity and genuine enjoyment. That meant looking closely at my beliefs and behaviors. Self-knowledge is crucial to making wonderful changes in our lives, and it’s not always easy. The more burdens we carry, the harder to let go of them. The more shadows in our past, the more frightening it can be to shine the light on them because we’re not always sure there’ll be anything of substance left by the time the shadows are all gone.
Slowly, I began to peel off the layers, to let up on myself instead of badgering myself to be better to an impossible degree of never good enough. I started to let go of the way I’d learned to look at things and accept that there were other, easier, more fulfilling ways to look at life. Then I started to let loose, just be myself and insist on it without being my own worst enemy.
If you can use any one of the methods in this book to lighten your own load, then you can take those important first steps to a more enjoyable life path. In only a few steps, you’ll start to figure out your life’s direction and how to make course corrections so you can find solid footing as wonderful new vistas begin to unfold in front of you.
I wish you beautiful changes,
Lorna Tedder
Author of The Long-Awaited, Honest-to-God Secret to Being Happy (and 23 more tips for living your joy)
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