by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys

Have you ever noticed the shift in mental perspective as you come through the holiday season and look up to find the new year stretched out in front of you? Coming into the season we are focused on the holidays and the winding up of the old year. The world is getting darker and colder (at least in the northern parts of the planet). There is a contraction of our vision and mental sense of space.

As the New Year passes all these factors shift and we look out into time which stretches in front of us, becoming lighter and warmer, and there is an increasing sense of space and opening up. [If you live in the south envision the mid-year solstice]

Often in healing work we go through a similar transition. If we are focused on a “problem” or “issue” it has a past, it may be dark, scary, or painful. It can limit our ability to look ahead or plan the future, or if its not too intense at least cloud things somewhat. Perhaps we do imagine a future without something, or with something, but it may seem distant, out of reach, as if it’s “next year”.

They say in the east that the reason that water is stronger than stone is that in the river it moves around the stone, but over time slowly wears it away.

In truth we always have a choice, to look back, or look forward. We stand in the present and make this choice, along with the choice to envision the future we want. While we may feel like we are heading into the dark of winter, or the depths of the night, we stand always at New Years, and the dawn of the new day.

When we begin to move our attention into the present and look up towards the future, even if it takes some time and effort, we stop feeding the past, begin to allow our mental visions to expand. It is a simple shift of perspective, and at first it may seem like illusion or a lie. But try it for a while and you will find a difference. Share it with your friends and you will find them reflecting it back to you.

In fact a few good friends who choose to look forward for you are an invaluable asset. Move away from those people who hold the images of the past, who, for whatever reasons, loving or otherwise, have trouble seeing you where YOU want to be. Spend more time with those wonderful people who trust that you are moving forward and are a capable soul who knows where you are going.

While there may be process to complete a healing or release on a physical or emotional level, you don’t have to wait for it to be complete before looking forward. You will find that the change in perspective does help! You are laying the foundation for who you will be and where you will go. Not tomorrow, or next year, but today.

Remember that when you build a building you work up from the ground. You don’t build the 5th floor before the first. You live through January before you get to June. However, you can look up and hold the vision of the 5th floor, and all the others in between; you know the feeling of summer, even in the heart of winter. You can find in yourself the feelings of love and compassion, in the midst of trial and challenge. Nurture them and they will grow.

In healing work it is known that you can focus too much on the past. You can spend great time and effort excavating old ruins. This may be useful, or it may not. Your goal is the future, and you need to start building that as soon as you can, even in little bits. Clear the past when it gets in your way, or shows up to challenge you (as it surely will), but always face forward and get the vision of where you are going (with a little help from your friends). Over time there will be less excavation and “healing” and more creating and joy.

It is a fact that as a society we think of healing and fixing, which is often necessary, but not so much about expanding and optimizing. Collectively we stand at the threshold of great potential. We know so much about how to build a bright future for ourselves and our planet. The same tools that move you from the shadow end of the spectrum of experience into the middle can help to move you on into the light end.

You don’t have to be “broken” to learn how to look forward and move further into your dreams. In fact where we are on the spectrum of fulfilling our dreams and our potential is not as important as simply, which way are you facing?, are you looking into the dark or calling in the light? Where ever we are we can give aid to others and benefit from the support of our friends.

This is not a matter of denying the past or the shadow. They may still have valuable lessons for us, and will naturally fall away when they are not useful. It is a matter of remembering to dream, to face in the direction we want to go as much as possible. The only way to get to the end of the long tunnel is to face that way and start walking. Live life facing forward; forward as you dream it and feel it, wherever you may be. And the more we all do this together.. well that’s a wonderful dream.

This New Year perhaps you can try something a friend suggested to me a while back. Exchange your “resolutions” with a friend or two. They hold your vision for you and you hold theirs for them. Its always easier to do for someone else isn’t it?

(© 1/2008)