Ushering in new year with optimism

A new page, a clean slate, a fresh chapter, unexplored paths, a brand new beginning – these are but a few common references for a new year.

It is synonymous to a gift wrapped with 365 unused days given on a platter. It can be said that it is the most valuable of all gifts a man can receive. For, it contains a minuscule of a man’s total life here on earth. Tiny as it seems in relation to eternity, a new year is a symbol of continuity, life and growth. It carries with it the message that another chance is given to embrace life and to live it to the fullest.

A new year in a sense comes as a well-crafted-package-deal. It will include a few days of unavoidable illness, some days of misfortunes beyond one’s control, still a few days of failures, yet another set of days with overwhelming challenges and occasionally contain some untold grief. These gloomy days will plague our spirits, wane our enthusiasm for life and send us to the pits of self-pity.

However the new year will also most certainly be mixed with days of opportunities, surprises, goodwill of friends, breakthroughs, vibrant health and happy times. The trick is to use these sunny days for growth and progress, to spread love and joy, to embrace the goodness in life and to give to life the very best of ourselves.

Ushering in the new year is then all about the right mental attitude.  Filling the mind with positive and optimistic thoughts is a wise thing to do to welcome a new year. Easy as this may sound an optimistic outlook can never be attained until consciously cultivated. In a world where strife and suffering loom large, positivism is bound to take the backseat.

Even so, philosophers suggest a simple strategy to embrace optimism. They exhort wiping out disappointments, failures and bitterness off the past permanently from our memories. This will imbue our spirits with a renewed zest for life. A story is told of a wise woman who drove this point to an audience she was mentoring. In the middle of her lecture she cracked a joke which received loud guffaws from the listeners.

Continuing with her lecture she stopped brusquely to repeat the same joke. This time the response was a rather half-hearted laughter. Moments later, when she chose to repeat the same joke one more time, the audience turned cold with indignation.

The wise women smiled and said, “If you can’t laugh at the same joke again and again, then why do you keep crying over the same thing over and again? Forget the past, embrace the present and live the adventure of life here and now!”