new year, new you? no pressure or anything

Forget about it. That’s the message I’m hearing. Forget making New Year’s resolutions. Forget deciding to do more of this, take in more of that. Take the pressure off.

What I’m hearing in these past short weeks from the people who inspire me–love to, among others, Danielle LaPorte, Shiva Rea, Martha Beck, and D-Man–is this: burn what you don’t need. Don’t carry it around anymore. Don’t let it weigh you down anymore. Send it to the flames and pour the ashes in the wind. Then, let it be reborn.

So this is what I’m asking myself: What happens when we decide to let go? What life-affirming wonders might ease into the space we create when we let go of what we don’t need?

What don’t we need? Maybe:
– thought paradigms that don’t serve us: “I’m not as good at that as she is.”
– time spent with people who don’t nourish us: it might sounds selfish, but I’m starting to understand that these people don’t need us, either
– worry about the future: how many times do we need to hear it? 99% of what we worry about never happens
– rehashing the past: it’s done. Let’s not relive it. Today is amazing. This moment is magic
– I’m sure there’s more

My friend D-Man (D for Dennis, or Divine) gently, mindfully, kicked my butt early last spring. In essence, this is what he said, “You need to give yourself more love. Everything you are running for will come to you if you stop racing after it.” So I did. I emptied myself of absolutely everything I was struggling to bring in. I bought a plane ticket to Paris, picked up the keys to an apartment in the 5th, and booked a two-week novel-writing course on a small Greek Island. And before I even left, everything I’d been running for began to arrive.

I’m excited to try it again. And again. Every day of 2010. Sending the needless junk into the fire, tending it with love, and seeing what rises from the ash.

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