Whether it’s the New Year or any other day, how we feel will mostly be affected by one thing; what’s on our mind.

Moment to moment our thoughts fluctuate from one idea to another, from one person to another or from a situation to another. Most of the time it seems that we are just observing our mind going around the neighborhood collecting more thoughts and recording it all for future reference as memories. Even when we don’t want to think of something it just pops up in our head and decides to stay, like an old friend who feels comfortable with us.

So what do we do about this old friend who over stays their welcome, eats away our time and helps themselves to whatever energy we have in the way of emotions? We love them away of course.

We love them for the light they shine on the past so we can appreciate the journey it took to arrive into the present moment. Looking over the past allows us to reflect (but not linger) so we can make sure we are not repeating any old patterns that hold us back. But now in the present moment, we need to live and be conscious of our every action so we have to ask our old friend to move on and only visit us on occasions when we need a gentle reminder of the past. Now like with any old friend we have some attachments towards each other. Of course our friend is comfortable with us just drifting by and keeping them company and we have desires to move beyond our limitations and make our life better but find it hard to let go of the past. At this time we have to remind ourselves that we do also have other friends in our life who will help us achieve the change we are looking for. So how do we focus on cultivating these new thoughts?

It isn’t just with our speech that we change things but with our actions. @yogicameron (Click to Tweet!)

It isn’t much use to sit around and talk about change or to put it off, but to use the tools at our disposal to make changes and stick to them however big or small. With positive actions come positive habit changes, which bring on new thoughts and a shift in mindset towards optimism and enthusiasm. From here you can keep moving forward knowing that the future is only going to get brighter because you are taking the necessary steps, although it may be some of the hardest moments of your life. As you keep moving forward and creating new positive moments, your memories will start to fill up with these new thoughts, which create new impressions. These new impressions help to fade out your old stale habits which have no place in your life any longer and that you are happy to lose all memory of. This is when the magic starts to happen in your life, when you are creating the most positive and joyous impressions in your mind and living them out.

Not everyone chooses intentional positive change but when they do, a lot of unexpected miracles start to happen.

Love life and love the present.

Yogi Cameron

Yogi Cameron left the world of high fashion as a supermodel to pursue an ongoing study of Ayurveda and Yoga. He has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, Extra, E! Entertainment, and Martha, amongst others. The Guru in You, his first book, was published by HarperCollins in 2011 and his follow-up book The One Plan was published in 2013. Yogi has brought Yoga and meditation in Afghanistan as part of the reintegration program to prepare the country for troop withdrawal and has worked with young girls rescued from sex trafficking practices in Cambodia in coordination with the Somaly Mam Foundation. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook and his website. Would you like to learn how to meditate without the common frustrations using the 6000 year old proven techniques that I use? Check out my NEW meditation CD. Click here: http://bit.ly/MeditateWithMe www.yogicameron.com/workwithyc

Image courtesy of Sudiono Muji.