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

Gratitude - even for the smallest things - can brighten up your day. Don't take for granted everything that can't be taken for granted. Still, I'm 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 that one thing is particularly important: gratitude.

Gratitude for the little things in life. That you were able to go to the toilet on your own 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 grateful shows us the luxury we live in and what it's really all about. Namely, being with ourselves and not just running out of the house out of fear to meet social demands and neglecting our own health and enjoyment of life in the process.

Your outlist

Today, January 6, is not only the day of the three wise men. It's also the day when the Christmas trees were thrown out onto the street when I was young. Now the old year is over! If you haven't already done so, make a quick clean-out list. What do you want to get out of your life? What should no longer appear in 2019? What doesn't belong to your future self? These could be items of clothing, emotions such as anger or rage. Money problems or even people who drain your energy. But also behaviors. Poor diet, procrastination. Unfriendliness.

I made another list like this at the end of the year and flushed it down the toilet at a friend's house where we were spending New Year's Eve. I wrote "ge..." on it 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 redesign everything. 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 DNA level. This means that the old excuse "I'm just like that!" no longer applies. The quality of an excuse does not change the fact that it is an excuse.

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

You can see some more photos below: Feet up by the fireplace ... and the iPhone next to it? What has it been like for you in the last two weeks - have you been able to leave the phone lying around for a few hours or days without using it? Can you decide freely or do you feel compelled to use it? Or the coffee cup: why do we like to take coffee breaks? Because inhaling deeply is good for us and reminds us of childhood, among other things. Hot chocolate, hmm...!

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

You will also see some photos of wonderful experiences we had in 2018. Meaningful encounters where it was always worth pausing and being grateful. Because the really important moments can have a little more depth.

So: Have the courage to take real breaks and have deeper conversations more often! More meditation, more intuition, and thus shape life and success from within, from a place of calm.

We have also reconsidered and are focusing on very important topics in 2019. More on this soon in the newsletter and here in the blog. Today, I wish you a well-filled to-do list and a focus on what is really important for you in 2019.

 

Fireplace photo: pixabay