With the turn of a new year, most of us are interested in achieving new goals, especially in creating more harmony and abundance. Many people are on the look-out for negative thinking and want to process life differently.  When we start taking inventory, it’s amazing how often we keep wounds open from situations that no longer matter. Memories and resentments such as old hurts left over from parents and institutions, guilt and unforgiveness, and old mental programming all translate into heartache and become the foundation for self-generating negative and unproductive states of living.  How can we alter our course to reset our thinking to the self-empowerment zone, which translates into achievement and success?

Develop conscious awareness

To feel productive and balanced, we can develop conscious awareness of those thought patterns that prevent us from expressing our gifts. With a little self-discipline, we can begin to reveal our divine selves, letting our light blast forth with no inhibitions and no agenda beyond the simple purpose of evolving our souls with as much zest as possible. When that happens, life suddenly moves from struggle to joy.

Choose a positive attitude

Every day we have an opportunity to choose our attitude and focus our intentions in the present moment. Because of this choice, our own personal lives and all that we see in the world originate within the mind. Our physical experience is our 360-degree review on how we think. Negative thoughts and old patterns of thinking prevent us from offering the world our special talents and doing the work we love, which can be anything from managing a home or a family to running a Fortune 500 company.

Having the discipline to choose our thoughts is also a challenge, especially when old baggage gets in the way. Put simply, our job is to fully participate in life but be consciously aware of what we want to create. Then we can look at the results and make adjustments. This is what it’s like to have an empowered life. And to do this, we must first know that life is a cooperative arrangement between us and a divine presence we call God. We’re all in it together, thinking certain thoughts and making choices that eventually become reality: a real-life reflection of our own thoughts.

Rely upon your inner power and the present moment

To realize this power with strength and self-confidence, we must also recognize that this strength lives within each and every one of us today. It is that spark of divine energy that constitutes our unique and beautiful selves. So the strength to achieve a goal comes from making choices based in the present moment, not as a reaction to events, relationships, or experiences from long ago that no longer matter. Deciding to live in the present is the key to an empowered life. And when we honor the Divine within us, no matter our wisdom tradition, we no longer wait for life to begin; we jump-start it all on our own.

Remember, life is an exercise in making positive change in the most arduous circumstances. The power to create reality lies within us. By claiming responsibility for what we create, we in turn are allowed to grow and self-develop. There is no failure, only a greater opportunity to put your Divine light to work. Take charge of your thinking!  That includes taking charge of your destiny and ending the self-blame for past experiences that no longer have any bearing upon what you can accomplish today.

© The Goddess Network, Inc. and Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D.  2007.  All Rights Reserved.  See http://www.thegoddessnetwork.com/connect.php?page=eshow for more empowering thoughts! Register for The E-Show, a series of enlightening lectures!