Photo by Flickr user sociotard

I’m writing this on Jan. 2 and already noticing the pressures involved in keeping my resolution. Of course, the difficulties are present and active, otherwise we wouldn’t need the resolve. This year I decided to meditate on my resolution following my own advice from a couple of weeks ago. (A guided meditation to access inner wisdom.) I wondered what my inner wisdom would have to say about it.

As often happens in meditation, I was surprised at the outcome. First I got validation, “Good resolution!” Then I got, “Make it fun!” Okay, but how? I listened again. This was the answer, “When temptation arises, do something that’s pleasurable and good for you.” Oh, not so easy. It got me thinking about how our resolutions are usually about finding a way to be happier, more at ease with ourselves. But how often do we replace one bad habit with another? I stopped eating sweets and I overate everything else. Friends quit smoking and gained 20 pounds. Others quit drinking and started smoking.

How can we find an easy source of pleasure when we’re tempted to revert to an old behavior? The first step is to listen to yourself. What are you really craving? Next step, go into meditation with that craving as the focus. Give yourself fully to it. If it’s a hot fudge sundae, imagine how it smells, how it tastes, the satisfaction of looking at its poetic beauty. Imagine the feeling you get in your body from eating it. Perhaps it’s a serotonin release that lifts your spirits. After all, our temptations are what we think will make us feel better. Wanting to feel better is a good thing. So allow yourself to engage in the feeling that you’re wanting.

With the above thoughts down on paper, I went back into meditation with the new question, “What would be a pleasurable alternative?” I was again surprised by the answer I heard, “Sing!” That certainly is something I love to do and is always available, even if I have to sing in my head. So, I’m going to try it.

This strategy of going within and listening to your inner wisdom can work, whether you’re trying to stop a behavior or start a new one. Either way there is resistance and it helps to have a reward to compensate for what you’re changing.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

As a mental health professional, an owner of a fitness studio, a writer and a wife, mother and grandmother, I have found meditation to be helpful in every aspect of my life. To find out about “Be Who You Love” meditation classes or my newly published novel, “A Barroom View of Love”, contact me at susanmmorales@yahoo.com or check out my websites: susanscottmorales.com and bodiesinbalancefitness.com.