How I spent New Year's Eve

I spent New Year's Eve this year with my husband (a rare opportunity, because he usually works all day and then wants to go to bed early), playing Wii Sports, drinking chocolate wine, and sneezing.  I have a cold, and it seems to be getting worse instead of better.

However, I didn't want to miss posting my philosophical approach to 2016...
I see New Years as a chance for a new beginning.  My sins of the past are dead and buried, my hopes for the future are just within my grasp.  Like the old saying goes, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

Technically, I gave up on New Year’s Resolutions many years ago, but I can’t quite help but think about what they would be, if I were to list them.  One of my old blog posts was somehow, magically, emailed to me this morning, and I thought, “that sounds pretty good.  I’ll do that.”  So, I’m making a New Year’s “Theme” (actually, 2):

  “Do It” and “Be Myself”.  

Both parts of these themes have a history to them, which I might go into later.
From my 2013 blogpost:

"Rules to Live By"

(in no particular order)

Only eat if I'm hungry.

Stop eating when I'm full.

The couch and laptop are not bodily parts, 

so make an effort to break away from them once in a while.

Go for a walk.

Take care of tasks as they come up instead of adding to the never-ending "to do" list.

Just "be"; live in the moment.  Quit reliving the past and worrying about/planning the future.

Forgive.  Let go.

Try new things.

Do what makes me happy.

Say what I feel.

Relax.  Meditate and pray.

Learn.

Be kind.

Help others.

Listen.

Appreciate.

Count my blessings.

For the full post, click here

What did you do for New Year's Eve?  What are your themes, resolutions, or goals for the new year?

7 Rules of Life

I found this on facebook and wanted to share it here.  I think these are some pretty good rules.

A New Year's Revolution

It's a "revolution" because it's time to change the status quo.  It's time to take a firm stance that I'm going to improve.  I learned that some of the problems with New Year's resolutions are that they need motivation in order to work.  We can only motivate ourselves for so long and often times, its not long enough to turn a new way of life into a habit.  You need at least 6 weeks for that, and even then, its easy to slip back into our old ways.  We have this mental block towards New Year's resolutions.  They are usually a big departure from our normal way of living, and we give ourselves a lot of slack to fail, because, they're "just" New Year's resolutions; not to be taken seriously.  Knowing this and being somewhat of a hopeless optimist (sometimes), I'm trying a little bit of a different approach, and starting a bit later too, to avoid the rush at the gym.  So, my New Year's resolution is to devise a list of:

"Rules to Live By"
(in no particular order)

Only eat if I'm hungry.
Stop eating when I'm full.
The couch and laptop are not bodily parts, so make an effort to break away from them once in a while.
Go for a walk.
Take care of tasks as they come up instead of adding to the never-ending "to do" list.
Just "be"; live in the moment.  Quit reliving the past and worrying about/planning the future.

Forgive.  Let go.
Try new things.
Do what makes me happy.
Say what I feel.
Relax.  Meditate and pray.
Learn.
Be kind.
Help others.
Listen.
Appreciate.
Count my blessings.