A Happy Clear Year: 10 tips for getting clear

"Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. - Jon Kabat Zinn

Many of us have heard before that to achieve our goals we have to get clear about them first. But there may be moments in our lives when we don't know what we want or where to even begin figuring out what we want. Maybe our heads are bickering with our hearts, or it is just too darn foggy to see in front of us. Below are some tools that can allow for better visibility.

Gaining Clarity:

1) Silence. I know how insanely hard this can be. Just try getting out of the head and dropping into a soft, quiet, space for a moment. Even if it is for five minutes, set a timer, stop, sit, listen, and notice.

2) Sleep on it! Dr. Judith Orloff in her book, Second Sight, references a Science Magazine report that finds sleeping on a decision means better decision making. By sleeping on it, we allow our creative and unconscious thoughts to take over, in turn helping us to make more informed choices.

3) Write. Writing is magical.  It frees us, helps sort our rational concerns from irrational ones, and springs heavy emotions out of the body. Julie Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, recommends writing “morning pages.” I love this practice. Don’t think, just write...every day, preferably when you first wake up. No one is going to see it, it doesn’t have to make sense, no agenda, no plan, just keep moving your hand until three pages are filled up.

4) Take what others say with a grain of salt. While it certainly can be helpful to talk to a friend, be mindful that someone's opinion is just that…their opinion. The person we are chatting with has their own baggage, their own scars, jealousies, and projections. They may warn us not to do something because it scares the s*** out of them. When we truly believe in something, we can remember not to let others dissuade us and take the wind out of our sails!

5) Visualize. Close your eyes and envision walking down a path. At the fork in the road, you can either choose to take one path that leads to choice A or the other path which leads to choice B. Notice how these different options feel in your body and what images arise. In your mind's eye, visualize what you want.

6) Ask yourself this question: Is this decision coming from love or fear? Decisions based from love light us up and give us energy. Fear makes us feel depleted, bored, flat. And it is helpful to know changing our minds is okay too!

7) Trust your gut. Our initial feelings, intuition, hunches, and physical sensations are all real and valid. They matter. Trust them.

8) Ask for guidance. Ask for help, and then pay attention to the messages you are receiving from your dreams, nature, coincidences…everywhere, there are signs.

9) Get creative. Make a vision board, cut out images that speak to you, and make a collage of what you want your life to look like. Or paint, write a poem, do something new, and engage your creative spirit!

10) Shake it up! Go for a walk. Dance. Swim. Move with your question, shake it up and out. The answer will settle to the ground like scattered flurries falling in a snow globe.

Once we get clear on what we want, we can write it down and then live with the sincere intention to manifest these dreams and desires affirming that they will happen. I have learned that making decisions and gaining clarity is both a rational and intuitive process. While I am not an expert on decision-making, I am dedicated to living life with clarity and the sincere desire to help others do the same!