A new year’s epiphany

The coming of the new year is like an epiphany for most of us. It makes us pause for a while and revisit what we’ve made of our lives and rethink what we would want the rest of our lives to be. It gives us a feeling that no matter how we messed up with our lives in the past including the year that had just gone by, we’re given a clean slate and a fresh start once more.

Whether we’re in our teens or in an age of aching bones or lapsing memories, we know the coming year can be made more meaningful if we can just reset our minds with a more positive orientation. What we’ve become up to this point was largely influenced by the quality of the thoughts we’ve had all these years. The past somehow matters, but it hardly does so when we realize that the rest of our lives will now depend on the kind of thoughts that we’ll nurture from hereon.

It is during moments of epiphanies when we also realize what truly matters most in our lives.

I remember Mang Sandro, whom we’ve met while vacationing in Boracay more than five years ago. He was nearly 90 years old already when we met him but he looked easily 10 years younger. He still had the spring in his steps as he walked from one end of the beach to the other selling knick-knacks and cheap trinkets neatly arranged in a small-box-like container strapped to his shoulders.

Healthy

He looked very healthy for his age, but obviously he was not materially blessed. What was clear, though, was that he was effusing with joy and zest for life. He regaled the small crowd of people who gathered around him with tales of his small victories in life. We ended up buying some of the stuff he was selling.

Mang Sandro was healthy physically, mentally and spiritually. He was profusely grateful for these and whatever blessings he had. His wife had long passed away but he was enjoying a wonderful relationship with his children and grandchildren.

Although Mang Sandro barely finished elementary education, many lettered and accomplished professionals could learn from his positive mindset. Despite his scarce means, he could be considered more blessed than many people of much greater affluence and material possessions. He had not and would never beg for alms. He plied his trade wherever his feet would take him, and his earnings were enough to provide for his food and shelter. He could not ask for more. With the little he had, he still had spare coins to share with the little boys and girls who made sand castles along the beach. He was Lolo Sandro to everyone who knew him.

Mang Sandro was happy with what he had, and his happiness and contentment brought him priceless dividends. He had never been sick or had a need to see a doctor. He never had a sleepless night, and never had to worry about enemies after his neck, or robbers after his possessions.

Positive mindset

As we start the new year, the most important resolution that we can make for ourselves, for our families and for our nation is to have a positive mindset and to maintain a positive expectation of things to come. Many times, we’re our own worst critic, and an even worse critic of others, of our leaders, of our nation. We fail to see the good things in our lives, in other people and in our country, but every small defect or shortcoming we see is easily highlighted and even exaggerated.

In past columns, we wrote about the tremendous impact of our mental disposition on our health, career, relationships and practically any aspect of our lives. We compared this to the internal or built-in GPS (global positioning system) which directs our entire life to whatever we predominantly think of.

Set expectations

We may not realize it, but many of the things that happen in our lives are due to our set expectations. It is what some would call as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we expect a bad year right at the start, like this week, chances are, we’re going to have a bad year. Instead of focusing on the problems, we can focus on the solutions and expect that things would turn out just as we would ideally want them, and the outcome should follow accordingly.

If we fill our minds with negative thoughts day in and day out, the outcomes would likely be negative. We get sickness, failure, broken relationships and financial ruin. The reverse happens if we constantly fill our minds with positive thoughts and feelings like love, compassion, gratefulness, and a desire to help and share.

I know it’s easier said than done but the truth and fact is, our thoughts ultimately determine what kind of health, relationships and state of life we would have from hereon. And if we badly need some changes in the kind of life we want to have, we just have to make an effort to change our mindset.

Last year when we vacationed again in Boracay, the familiar figure of   Mang Sandro with his box of trinkets was no longer there. We were told that he died a couple of years ago, probably due to old age. We wished he was still there to regale us with his stories, and tell us more of his secrets to a happy and meaningful life.

Here’s wishing everyone a blessed and bountiful 2015.