By Fred Cavaiani
We begin 2024 so very soon. Thoughts on the New Year start flooding our minds on the day after Christmas and seem to remain with us for a week. How will this New Year be? Will it be a safe year? Will there be peace in the world? Will there be any weather disasters? Will anyone die who might be close to us? How will our personal health be? How will I do financially? Many questions can flood our mind. There is so much we have no control over. This time before the New Year begins, we can often wonder what is the purpose of the rest of our life.
I am convinced that the best way to start living a New Year is let go of worrying and invest in daily prayer and meditation. In taking an abundance of quiet time with God each day, starting in the morning and then taking some quiet time with God throughout the day by reading something spiritually uplifting and just remaining quiet with God, we discover an inner peace. The more time we spend in quiet time with God, the more we experience God and the more we our body relaxes. It is amazing what prayer and meditation can do to help us relax and discover an inner peace.
Prayer and meditation help us to let go of resentments and criticisms about other people. It helps us experience God in a loving and positive manner. It also helps us to have a positive experience of God. So often we live our lives like a person not willing to listen to other people and learn. We numb ourselves from experiencing a positive attitude because we rush through life without taking time to slow down and experience God.
For a number of years now I take a minimum of an hour a day to meditate and listen quietly to God speaking to me. It has helped me tremendously. Then I write a daily personal reflection which anchors me deeper and I text it to people while I think of them and pray for them. This increases my awareness of God and helps me to be more kind and loving toward others.
Each New Year I thank God that I can do this and feel grateful for God’s Loving Presence in my life. These reflections are so helpful because it becomes a way of going deeper into myself and into a deeper experience of God. Life is meant to be a journey into God. I need silence to embrace this journey deeper and stay in the present moment in a gentle and reflective manner.
But I must set this as a priority to reserve time to do this. This has been my priority for many years. It has helped me to focus on being loving and kind to everyone. It also helps me to not rush through life. What a positive experience it has become to not rush through life. Whatever struggles or pain that might come toward me, everything becomes a journey deeper into God. Pain and sorrow, joy and good times all become a way of going deeper into God and help me to realize the shortness of life and the purpose of life. Going through life gently and slowly helps me to experience an inner peace in the present moment. And that is what I am experiencing right now as I type this article for the newspapers, I write for every two weeks since 1999. I feel grateful and blessed and realize deeper that we are all on this journey through life together.
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Fred Cavaiani is a licensed marriage & family therapist and limited licensed psychologist with a private practice in Troy. He is the founder of Marriage Growth Center. He conducts numerous programs for groups throughout Michigan. Cavaiani is associate editor and contributing writer for Human Development Magazine. His column in the Legal News runs every other Tuesday. He can be reached at 248-362-3340. His e-mail address is: Fredcavi@yahoo.com and his website is FredsCounselorsCorner.com.
