Every year many of us make the same New Year’s resolutions. We resolve to eat less, exercise more, spend less, save more, be kinder to others and ourselves, and perhaps even help save our beautiful planet. Sounds inspiring, doesn’t it? We start out feeling pretty good about our healthy choices and altruistic spirit. Then the end of the year rolls around and we wonder, what happened?

Why is it so challenging to accomplish these resolutions and what can we do to break this cycle? When we attempt to achieve our resolutions from a purely ego based perspective, we are coming from a place of lack. Since lack creates more lack, the cycle just perpetuates itself. When we rewrite our resolutions utilizing a spiritual approach, we now have the power to achieve them with ease and feel a sense of accomplishment.

As this New Year rings in, we have the opportunity to develop resolutions that are coming from a higher level of consciousness. It is a time to release those old tapes filled with lack and fear and embrace a new paradigm overflowing with possibilities for abundance.

It is a New Year. It is time to seize our power to think new thoughts. Let’s send our resolutions out into the Universe and be open to receive them. Then when opportunities for new careers, new relationships, healthier bodies, and more abundance come our way, we will be ready to embrace them.

The following are tips for rewriting resolutions from the heart:

1.  Lighten your load every chance you get. Catch your mind engaging in situations that are beyond your control. Then make a conscious choice to send light and love to everyone involved and then release the energy. When we take on the issues of others and make them our own, we increase our weight. In order to become lighter, we need to lighten our loads. We will then have more energy available in the present moment to make healthier choices for ourselves as well as the planet.

2. Ground yourself in the Earth. Treat yourself to a little field trip to commune with nature. Take deeps breaths as you explore the natural beauty of the world around you. It doesn’t matter where you go or for how long. Just savor the goodness of our Earth as you connect with the Infinite in the moment. Perhaps you will turn this into a regular routine. You might even discover that you enjoy the exercise as you increase your sense of clarity.

3.  Count your blessings every day. Start a new tradition by thinking of three things that you are grateful for everyday. Write them down when you wake up in the morning. Beginning your day focusing on abundant thoughts is a good way to increase abundance throughout the day. Remember that abundance is much more than your bank account. It is a profusion of good health, good friends, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and love. Your spiritual bank account, how much unconditional love and compassion you devote to others as well as yourself, is what really matters. Daily deposits into this account create infinite abundance.

4. Celebrate your loving relationships. Reach out to those people in your life that are there for you no matter what. Thank them for those times they held the faith for you when you forgot how. Send them a text, email, or make a phone call. Whatever you do, just let them know how grateful you are that they put up with you, especially when your animated human side emerges.

5.  Exercise your opportunity to forgive in the moment. Forgiveness is so important that it gets its own special place. We all make choices we regret. It is the human part of us. The most important thing to remember is to forgive ourselves and others every chance we get. When we are uncomfortable with our choices, we need to forgive in the moment. Sometimes we need to forgive in many moments until we can come to a place of peace. Life is filled with numerous chances to forgive. At times we may think we have completely worked through a situation and then bam! Something comes up and we have to start forgiving all over again. Forgiveness is always welcome anytime anywhere. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

6.  Embrace change as you let go of control. Many of us are experiencing times of rapid change and uncertainty. Our plans are falling through quite frequently. Eventually we come to recognize that the Universe has something better in mind for us. Some of us resist change with such intensity that it is exhausting. The illusion of control seems to pacify our egos as our spirits become disempowered. Time to take our power back. How do we accomplish this? We let go in the moment and think a new thought that brings us peace. A great practice is to pay attention to affirmations that catch our attention and then write them down. Post these little inspirational nuggets all around the home. Read them out loud whenever the ego is trying to take control. Change is much easier to accept when we remember who we really are and why we are here.

7.  Remember it is a strength to ask for help. We are all connected and we need each other. Sometimes life is too challenging to navigate on our own and we need help. Every time we ask for help, we are providing others with opportunities for growth. We are assisting them on a higher level to fulfill their own life missions. We must calm our egos as we recognize that asking for help is a gift we give to ourselves as well as others. We will be surprised at how often people are happy to help. Occasionally we will be denied assistance and our egos may feel a bit bruised. That is really the best help of all. We now have the opportunity to rise above our egos and increase our power.

As we celebrate the New Year, let us look ahead with renewed faith as we rewrite our resolutions from the heart. Have a peaceful and loving 2016 filled with many blessings.