Did you start implementing your new years resolutions yet? The gyms are packed this time of year. I know because I’m there too, with a host of people trying to improve themselves. We want to become the new improved version of ourselves that everybody loves to love. A self that hopefully even we can love. Often, the perception has been to rearrange our external selves, our bodies, the way we look and the way we dress. Appearances seem to be the thing: how other people see us, what others think about us, how different can we be, how distinct, how unique, our own brand of human being.

Externally we try to trim the fat, tone the muscles, eat less carbs... look better, then maybe, hopefully, we will feel better about ourselves too. And, this seems to work for awhile, but come the middle of February, maybe a little later, the motivation seems to fade and we fall back into being the person we have invariably become. It’s like holding yourself in the absolute best posture, after a while it just becomes too much effort, we forget, and return back to our old slouching self. It could be different, but we need to access the right perspective in order to maintain the experience we are looking for.

Maybe, just maybe, we’re trying to improve the wrong self. Maybe there is another Self that is available to us that needs no improving, a huge part of ourselves that is already improved, already healthy, already whole and complete, ready to guide us on our journey. A part of us that needs nothing and only wants to express itself fully through our human form. All we need to do is look within our human form and ask for guidance.

The internal nature of our human selves is already hard wired to something greater. We are, after all, Human Beings, which indicates that we have a human part, which we have been trying to improve, and a Being part that needs no improving.

What I forget sometimes is that the shift I really want to make is not only a physical one, but primarily one of identity. A shift from identifying myself as simply human, to identifying myself with my entire Being. It’s still me, I’m still unique, there’s only one of me, only now, when that shift occurs, it goes all the way through me, and I’m connected up to something much greater than myself. It’s similar to the difference between operating a solo computer, or being connected to the internet. Externally it looks the same, only it is a totally different experience that is light years apart.

Yes, the human part of us needs attention too, but the larger perspective of life comes to us naturally from Being. Health and healing, come from Being. Abundance and happiness come from Being, direction and movement all come from Being, then it travels out to our human self and out into the world of our experience. The source of life, the source of health occurs in the internal realm of Being first, then travels out to our human selves. Human Beings. The external Human and the internal Being. One whole thing, one whole person. Wholeness personified and available anytime, anywhere.

This includes the state of health in our physical bodies, our ability to think clearly and reason with our logical minds, our ability to clearly feel our emotional self and to explore the nature of our Spirit. This is the principle of wholeness. Whole person, whole foods, whole community, whole world. It’s all one thing. A simple idea attached to a profound experience.

Shift your perspective and your experience will change.  Try to change your experience without connecting to your internal Self, and when we get tired of holding everything up, it falls right back down to where you started. Sound familiar?

If you don’t already have your own New Years Resolutions, try on some of these:

• Drink healthy water without the toxic chemicals, chlorine and fluoride, that poison our bodies and weaken our bones.
• Eat whole foods, unprocessed, unpackaged and unchanged from their natural state. Whole person, whole foods.
• Use healthy oils and fats. High levels of DHA feed the brain, while high levels of EFA feed the body. Hydrogenated fats block fat utilization and create inflammation.
• Eat healthy protein, including eggs, that have been organically raised free of pesticides, chemicals and antibiotics.
• Stay away from herbicides and pesticides, which poison our bodies and stupefy our minds. Eat organic produce, locally grown if possible, which also eliminates routine x-raying of our fruits and vegetables.
• Eat non GMO foods.  Let Nature design our food, not scientists. A plant or animal that cannot reproduce it’s own seed is unfit for human consumption and is a precursor to disease.
• Stay away from drugs and prescription medications unless your life depends on it. Drugs present a severe danger to your health and well being. Pharmaceuticals cannot sustain health for long periods of time without severe consequences.
• Meditate every day no matter what, in order to maintain as stress free a life as possible, and to connect with your internal Being, the source of all life.
• And as my friend Dr. Bernie Siegel reminds me, don’t forget to Love One Another.
• Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Make a new New Years Resolution to expand your perspective to include the ways of Being. This essential shift can result in a new you that is far beyond any expectations that you can ever plan or imagine.

Make the most of this powerful new year.