May you find lasting happiness and peace. May all of us who share this planet go forward together into the new year in harmony.

Peace of mind is about embodying a compassionate world-view. Open your heart to experience compassion for yourself and others. This state of play, is augmented by thinking of someone you love with every cell in your body. It can be your partner, spouse or a close friend. Your child. Parent or sibling. Someone who makes you smile with your heart.

Because it is all about love; if in doubt, ask yourself "What would love do?" Love overcomes feelings of discontent, isolation, alienation and unhappiness. Love has the power to process loss and or forgiveness. A mantra helps us to love ourselves, our thoughts, our lives, our essential being. Re-energising the flow of love is about overcoming selfishness. Ergo, doing something for someone else and not needing acknowledgement.

We learn about love from our parents. If you were fortunate to receive unconditional love from your family then you are blessed with the ability to self-nurture and engage with others without the need to edit your feelings.

I believe that we create out reality. Every day has an abundant amount of opportunities to amplify your awareness. People who operate on a higher frequency of awareness are vital, healthy human beings.

We all experience times in which we are challenged, want to run. avoid taking the next step towards changing a negative into a positive. It is good to know what your strengths are. And how you can renew your life-force.

The body is a sophisticated machine. Take good care of it and your body will respond in kind with abundant energy. How to increase your bodies natural fire ( Agni) is by nourishing your body with healthy food, sufficient rest/sleep.

Make time each day to quieten your mind in meditation. Exercise. Easy does it, but do it. Sign up for a course in Qi Gong and boost your immune system. Create peace of mind. Maintain a healthy equilibrium.

Learn to cook if you don't know how. If you do already, explore more ways to enjoy the aroma and taste of your cooking. I love layering in spices. Even our porridge! In winter it is good to increase the potency of food by adding spices. I add spices to do two things; color and taste. They never disappoint.

I can over-think my way into an avoidant dilemma; procrastination is my downfall. Therefore, mastering time is key to achieving what one must do in order to stay on top in the game of life.
Even though there are things I would rather not do,now or ever, doing these things has a knock-on effect of making me feel good...

For many of us, relationships can either empower us - win-win/love-love or make us feel resentful- victim/blame-game/triangulating dynamics that disempower us and others. The ensuing power struggle eventually destroys relationships.

I recommend doing a Metta Meditation as we ease into 2012. Try it every day for a month as part of your Meditation practice. Best done at the end of the day so that any slow-burn resentments can be reality-checked - self mastery means taking ownership of ALL aspects of your behavior.

Below is a Metta Meditation that I find life changing. Try it. I wish you all an "examined life" in 2012. It was Socrates who stated that "An unexamined life is not worth living" Self - reflection is the antidote for self-denial.

Altering perceptions, create positive and challenge fear and doubt.
A daily discipline I practice:
Metta- Loving Kindness.
The original name of this practice is "metta bhavana" which comes from the Pali language. Metta means ‘love’ (in a non-romantic sense), friendliness, or kindness: hence ‘loving-kindness’ for short. It is an emotion, something you feel in your heart. Bhavana means development or cultivation. The commonest form of the practice is in five stages, each of which should last about five minutes for a beginner.

1. In the first stage, you feel metta for yourself. You start by becoming aware of yourself, and focusing on feelings of peace, calm, and tranquillity. Then you let these grow in to feelings of strength and confidence, and then develop into love within your heart. You can use an image, like golden light flooding your body, or a phrase such as ‘may I be well and happy’, which you can repeat to yourself. These are ways of stimulating the feeling of metta for yourself.
2. In the second stage think of a good friend. Bring them to mind as vividly as you can, and think of their good qualities. Feel your connection with your friend, and your liking for them, and encourage these to grow by repeating ‘may they be well; may they be happy’ quietly to yourself. You can also use an image, such as shining light from your heart into theirs. You can use these techniques — a phrase or an image — in the next two stages as well.

3. Then think of someone you do not particularly like or dislike. Your feelings are ‘neutral’. This may be someone you do not know well but see around. You reflect on their humanity, and include them in your feelings of metta.
4. Then think of someone you actually dislike — an enemy. Trying not to get caught up in any feelings of hatred, you think of them positively and send your metta to them as well.
5. In the final stage, first of all you think of all four people together — yourself, the friend, the neutral person, and the enemy. Then extend your feelings further — to everyone around you, to everyone in your neighbourhood; in your town, your country, and so on throughout the world. Have a sense of waves of loving-kindness spreading from your heart to everyone, to all beings everywhere. Then gradually relax out of meditation, and bring the practice to an end.
I recommend beginning to develop a Metta practice this way then you can extend this to an audio format. For now learning how to develop new neural pathways begin this way. Think you way into feeling positive.
Metta.