By: Bill Simo
Source: The Daily Guardian https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/view/1958/the-daily-guardian%09/15
Dated: January 25th, 2025

As we find ourselves approaching the end of January in this new year, it seems a good time to consider how we are going to sail smoothly along on our journey. Navigating our way through, requires us to take command; to be the captain of our own ship. Before embarking on a voyage, a captain will assemble all the charts of the ocean and steady the compass on the course he wants to take. There are many things to consider for our voyage but spiritually speaking, there are three important aspects to put in place; our values, purpose and vision of the future. 

Values: What do we value most in our spiritual life and progress? What virtues and principles do we want to make sure we continue to employ, practise and grow? For example, we may realise we need to pay more attention to the time we spend in meditation, and the quality of that meditation experience. 

Purpose: What are our intentions for the year on a spiritual level? If we take time to sit quietly and cast our mind back to January 2024, and as a detached observer observe the time line of the whole year, we will see the ups and downs, the strengths we employed, the virtues we developed and which ones need more improvement. We will also see clearly what we want to leave behind, as they did not serve us well. Then with an eye to the coming year, consider which virtues and qualities we want to develop further; for example, perhaps we realise we need more tolerance in our relationships. We should choose only one or two, or maybe three, virtues and qualities, otherwise there will be too much going on and we will lose our focus. 

Vision:  Then we can jump forward in our mind’s eye to 31 December 2025 and visualise ourselves in the stage of having achieved great success in our development, grown to become the embodiment of a virtue we set out to imbibe. The important thing is to have focus, intention and a vision of who I will be when I reach those spiritual goals.

There are a couple of tools to help us navigate the way forward, gracefully.

1. The Stoics were a group of Greek philosophers who believed that living a virtuous life was the key to a well-lived life.  One of the tools they used was that of ‘negative visualisation’. Although the term is ‘negative’ it is in fact, and extremely positive exercise, especially in two ways.  
   a. It requires us to visualise our coming task, any task or project, and imagine what might be the challenges that could appear. Then we can prepare and discern what we need to develop to face those challenges. 
   b. We immediately begin to appreciate and have gratitude for the present time, because these challenges do not need to be faced right now. So, gratitude is increased, detachment is developed, and while still maintaining determination in achieving the goals, remain aware that things may not work out exactly as we imagine.
2. The second tool to help us navigate is simplification. We all need energy. The more we have, the better our mind and brain work, the more energetic and resourceful we become. To save energy it is better to look at possible areas of wastage; Time spent on devices, wasteful conversations, most importantly wasteful thinking and wasteful inner dialogues. We need to make sure that we are more present and connected to our stated intentions, values and vision. We need to make sure we do not spend time deviating from the goal we set ourselves.
3. Finally, and very importantly, harmonious relationships are vital to graceful navigation. The art of interacting with others with more wisdom, more understanding and more harmony, requires many virtues and qualities that we need to develop. The need to be more flexible, for example, and have more humility; letting go of stubbornness, stop holding on to my opinions and the ideas I have of how things should be done. Life is all about relationships – those with self, others, nature and the relationship with the Divine. Attention to all of these relationships, and a pure desire for them to be harmonious, will be one of the keys to navigating our way, gracefully, through 2025.

Bill Simo is a coach and trainer, 
and teaches Rajyoga with the Brahma Kumaris,
based in Madrid, Spain.