Welcome to 2019! The gift pack in the photo is to remind you that it is a special gift that we get to experience this year.

Gratitude - even for the smallest things - can brighten your day. Don't take for granted everything that can't be taken for granted. I'm still in Arizona, where Patty and I had a wedding reception with her family and friends. Here I went to a special health center where top athletes go to get "tuned up." In addition to the various detox and energy machines, the owner told me, one thing above all is important: gratitude.

Gratitude for the little things in life. That you were able to go to the toilet alone this morning. Be grateful for that, not everyone can do that! Be grateful that you can choose where you want to be. Not everyone can do that! Being mindful of gratitude shows us what luxury we live in and what it's really really about. Namely, being with yourself and not just running out of the house out of fear to meet societal demands and neglecting your own health or joy of life.

Your out list

Today, January 6, is not only the day of the three wise men. It is also the day when in my youth the Christmas trees were thrown into the street. Now the old year is over! If you haven't done it yet, make a quick get-out list. What do you want out of your life? What do you not want to show up in 2019? What doesn't belong to your future self? It could be clothing items, emotions like anger or resentment. Money problems or even people who rob you of energy. But also behaviors. Wrong diet, procrastination. Unfriendliness.

I made another list like that at the end of the year and flushed it down the toilet at friends' houses where we spent New Year's Eve. Still on it "ge..." and decided: I don't need this sh... anymore! And then shook myself, stripped off everything old and shook it off. Others burn the list or bury it in nature, because what you don't like can also be fertilizer for something new.

Whatever you choose ... the year is new, and you can make everything new. Nothing has to go. Current results in your life are only the harvest of yesterday. You can sow anew, and you can reap anew. Science has shown that we can reprogram ourselves down to the DNA level. This means that the old excuse "I'm just like that!" is no longer valid. The quality of an excuse does not change the fact that it is an excuse.

Nothing in life has meaning in itself. Nothing. Nothing at all. It is always we ourselves who make the meaning, the evaluation. So: 2019 is new and fresh. Be careful not to pollute it with your old sh... right away.

Below you can see some more photos: Feet up by the fireplace ... and the iPhone next to it? How was it for you in the last two weeks - could you leave the phone for some hours or days without using it? Can you decide freely or do you feel compulsion to use it? Or the coffee cup: why do we like to take coffee breaks? Because inhaling, breathing deeply, does us good and reminds us of childhood, among other things. Hot chocolate, hmm...!

Moments of rest and inhalation do us good. That's why proper breaks are so important. But many live at a fast-train pace. The next photo shows a Starbucks in Arizona with a drive-through. Proper breaks are reduced to unconscious "gulping." How sad is that!!!

You will also see some photos with wonderful experiences we had in 2018. Meaningful encounters where it was always worthwhile to pause and be grateful. Because the really important moments may quietly have a little more depth.

So: Have more courage to take real breaks and to have deeper conversations! More meditation, more intuition, and so from the inside out of the calm shape life and successes.

We have also reconsidered and are focusing on very essential topics in 2019. More about that soon in the newsletter and here on the blog. Today I wish you a meaningfully filled out list and focus on what is really important for you in 2019.

 

Fireplace photo: pixabay