This is right at the last minute. At least, that is what people say. Until the end of January you are allowed to wish someone a happy new year. In fact a new year begins every day, but we have made a habit our own in which we see only 1 January as its start. For me it is important to thank everyone I was allowed to meet last year in my trainings, workshops, meetings and individual sessions most warmly. Thanks to you I can do the work I love doing most: inspiring, activating and motivating sparks of consciousness in others. And so I wish you a new year of awakening and growing conscious BEING in everything you do.

When habits become a pitfall

I once looked backwards and forwards at my own life with as empty a head as possible, in order to harvest whatever had ripened. The past years have been physically painful and intense years in terms of health. On top of that I have a tendency to support projects that are not mine. My enthusiasm tempts me into it. And although that support and cooperation is nourishing and enriching for me, I notice that gradually more and more of my time is being consumed at the expense of what I want to do for myself and my organisation. This is nothing new. I know the pattern, but giving and taking gets thrown too far out of balance by it. I felt that action was needed. An action in a double movement: with regret in my heart and with space in my heart.

Your prison is unconscious

Every day you are guided by an invisible script: your habits. Habits are not only those things you have been carrying out on autopilot for years; they are just as much your habits of thought, of belief and of emotion. They often come into being because they have a certain practical nature or bring a form of structure. Just look at your morning routine. From how you get up, eat, think and react to how you deal with others. Much of what you do happens automatically, without your giving it a thought.

What are the things you still do with your conscious attention? The first time you learned to cycle or to drive, you will have done it with interest. After a while your alertness fades and gives way to unconscious actions while you let complete scenarios of thoughts play out in the meantime. Your mind is no longer on the job. It is the same with your thoughts and your beliefs. Which thoughts go through you in the morning? Have you thought them on other mornings too? Do they reach out towards particular situations or people from the past? Then you are in an unconscious habit. You are away from the here and now. You are thinking unconsciously.

Chances are that certain circumstances trigger you again and again to fall into a particular emotional habit. Once more this is unconscious. You then miss the fruitfulness of the moment and the chance to look at the situation in a conscious way. Habits that are repeated over and over become, in time, your inner prison. You cannot get out of it any more. You have lost your freedom. You are locked up. You want to be liberated, but you do not know how. The walls and the bars close in on you. The results you experience in every area of your life are the consequence of unconscious habits. So you create your own prison.

When your consciousness encourages you

I had no specific wish or anything I absolutely wanted to achieve in 2025. So I looked from the space in my heart and from an empty head at the situation as it was at that moment and at the new year lying open before me. As always, circumstances work along with you to make your course clear. I withdrew from two projects to which I had been contributing. The space in my heart became lighter, in weight and in brightness. The proverbial cards fell favourably.

‘Open yourself to a wider perception and a greater truth.
That which you believe to be real becomes larger and more powerful.
You are undergoing new impulses of life force.
Fire burns away every limitation.’ And so it went on. Messages that flowed through and gave light-footed direction.

The effects of priorities

For years my physical ability to move declined. Now a new message sounded: ‘It is time to move!’ And so it happened. I found the perfect guidance, attuned to what is possible for my body now. I am keeping this approach up. I am making progress. And all at once I knew. My first objective for 2025 is my health as an absolute priority. Everything else is measured against it. And it is moving forward. The first signs of improvement are already visible. To be able to move more freely again at last. The old pattern is crumbling away. A more conscious new pattern is stepping in the direction of a movement dream that can become reality.

From the habit of splintering to focus

Messages reach you in many ways. From an organisational constellation about my own functioning within my business, it turned out that I had to deal with my organisation with renewed attention. ‘Renewed attention’ — that was music to my ears. Not different attention. Renewed. It felt open and playful, still unknown but not unfamiliar. An old habit of splintering my time was broken. My attention and my time became consciously focused again. It became my second objective for 2025.

Conscious BEING as the key to change

Good and bad habits do not really exist. They are all habits. As long as you carry them out on autopilot, you are not living from this moment and you repeat the same pattern. The habit has power over you. It tells you what to do and you have no defence against it. As soon as you perceive the habit consciously, however, a moment of choice arises. Simply by recognising which triggers activate certain patterns, you open the door to change. A simple question such as ‘Why am I actually doing this?’ can already set a shift in motion. If you go walking every day, you can do it in an unconscious or in a conscious way. It is the second version that gives you options, so that a different result can emerge. That may be a different route or a different pace. It is a challenge to do everything you do consciously, but the reward is great. Besides that, intention and repetition play a crucial role. Habits are not formed overnight, nor are they unlearned in one go. Small, consistent changes, however, can have an enormous impact in the long term.

The creative consciousness

Two objectives for 2025 are enough for me. Everything else flows on from them. As I write this text, the sun is shining through the clouds. That is how it feels in my heart. The sun is shining and it is radiant. For 2025 I choose conviction over doubt. The steps I take in 2025 are not like the steps I took in 2024. I am curious where my feet will take me, literally and figuratively. My empty head and my spacious heart work together and create more ideas than I can work out. Discernment will determine which ones see the light of day. And although I would love to tell you all about it, I am keeping my mouth shut for a little while longer. All in good time.

New chances at life

In March 2023 the heart specialist said that my life expectancy was limited to September 2023. At most. And that is how it felt too. September 2023 is now a year and a half behind us. I have come back. And not by a little, either. I have been given a new chance at life. My gratitude is great. I said this recently to another specialist. He stood up, came over to me and shook my hand with both of his. I looked at him questioningly. ‘If you knew how few patients see it this way…’, he said. Through my empty-head messages I was told that my recovery would take three years. I am only halfway there. What will it be like in another year and a half?

From habit to transformation

So there is only one thing for it. If you start deploying your habits consciously, they become a powerful instrument for personal and collective growth. This asks of you that you experience every moment as new and that the way you deal with it is new as well. Everything seems fresh. You feel more alive. Your conscious dealings with your body, your thoughts, your beliefs and your emotions set a movement towards freedom in motion. And freedom happens to be what we as human beings long for most. That freedom does not come by itself, though. It needs your conscious perception. And conscious action! Suppose you practised gratitude or breathing consciously every day, or that you asked open questions instead of making automatic judgements, what would happen then? The lovely thing is that you can do it with the everyday things you are busy with too: tying your shoelaces, doing the ironing, putting on your make-up, working in the garden or attending a meeting. There is an abundance of possibilities to practise with. Conscious BEING lifts you to a higher level. Now apply this together, in a group, in your family or at work. What happens then?

Knee pain as the unmasker of habits

My knees made themselves heard last year. I will spare you the painful details. Of course I know they were not making all that noise for nothing. They bring a message, louder than ever before. I listened, I felt, I acted, I meditated, I visualised, I had treatments, I took care of them, I relaxed, I exercised, I explored, and I consulted… More deeply than I was used to, although I had never ignored my knees. A specialist warned me: ‘This is going to get much worse and it will never go away again. There is nothing to be done about it.’ That is an answer I can do nothing with and, at the same time, a great deal. An answer like that sets me in motion.

When my priority for 2025 became clear, my empty head and my open-space heart called out in chorus: ‘Your knees are about suppleness.’ Of course I already knew that. ‘You refuse to give up certain habits and to change them. That is where your answer lies.’ Interesting. I had no urge to look away or to be indignant. That one sentence said everything I needed to know. I could do something with that. It made me happy. I could get to work with it. It is clear to me which habits qualify. In fact I had already been busy with it from the moment I made my decision to renew my focus. But it became more. I resolved to put all my habits under the magnifying glass this year in a playful and enjoyable way, and to see at which levels more consciousness can seep in. I feel I am going to have fun with it and learn a great deal. I am going to do this lovingly, without detesting my old habits. I will take my leave of them lovingly and with thanks. Step by step. There are many days in a year.

This article, for a start, is the result of the message from my knees.

And you?

Do you fancy taking stock of your habits in a playful way? Do you fancy making space and freshening them up with conscious BEING? May I give you a tip? If you write down where you stand now, which old pattern you are changing and how you are introducing something new, then at the end of the year you have an overview of your growth.

With a zest-for-life greeting

Hilde Van Bulck
Consciousness architect, Systemic constellation facilitator and advisor
Director for Constellations and Education at Constellators International.