Your Mind is a Powerful Thing.

Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.

This one is for those of you that have "New Year's Resolutions".

I am not a big fan of New Year's...the parties, the fear that you need to have someone to be with for that kiss at midnight, the insipid drinking, the overeating...I COULD go on, but I won't.

I have not celebrated New Year's in any way, since I let my young daughter stay up to watch the TV celebration of the ball drop in New York City, on the Centennial 2000 New Year's celebration. She didn't quite grasp that it was still 11 here, and I didn't alert her about that, so we went to bed at about 11:05.

That is the last time I can recall that New Year's Eve had any impact on my life. Just like every single day of the year, when you wake up, you can erase everything that happened the day, the week, the month, the year before, and start with a new slate.

Positive thinking has been around since we have been thinking. To talk to yourself with love and respect is as important as talking to your most revered friend in the same way. You need to focus on all the great things about you, maybe even write them down, and look at them, to keep yourself understanding why you and your journey to good health are so important.

I have a list that I made a while back when I first read the Beck* book, about why it was important to lose weight, and why eating something unhealthy was not as important to me as the things on that list. I also wrote a "you are beautiful" list, that is taped to a bathroom mirror.

I don't really need that list to continue on this journey, but I do look at it every single day at 4 pm. It is a re-assurance for me, to remind me every single day, why this is journey is important, why I am important to me, and why my continued journey matters.

I just spent some time with my parents, who have really eaten healthy and exercised for the past 30 years. They are inspiring, to say the least. They reminded me, that you can feel and look good in your 80's, and by continuing on my path, I can too.

We all have negative thoughts enter our minds. We all have to be vigilant not to let them overpower the good and positive thoughts that should be there. By stopping negative thoughts at the door of your mind, and focusing on all the positive things about you and the positive things you are doing, you are setting yourself up for success.

Write two lists today. One should be the reasons you want to succeed on this healthy journey. The other one is why you are beautiful (handsome for all you awesome male friends of mine!!). Make no mistake about it, you are beautiful/handsome. Find five things that make you so, write them down, and tape them to a mirror you look at at least once a day.

If you were/are like me, mirrors were not my friends and I didn't spend much time looking at them. I think a list like this is important for just this reason.

When we can think about all that is good and positive in our lives, and why we are so worth this journey, it helps light the "spark", that sets this journey on fire.

Don't start on the first of the year. Start today. The first is just an arbitrary date, and there is a magnificent morning every single day.

Love yourself, use your mind to create positive loving thoughts, banish the negativity, and your life will start to change for the better.

Spark on.

*The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
By Judith Beck