I am only just in time. At least, that is what they say. You may wish someone a happy new year until the end of January. In fact, a new year begins every day, but we have made it a habit to see only 1 January as its start. For me it is important to thank, with all my heart, everyone I had the pleasure of meeting last year in my trainings, workshops, meetings and individual sessions. Thanks to you, I can do the work I love most: inspiring, activating and motivating sparks of awareness in others. And so I wish you a new year of awakening and growing aware-BEING in everything you do.
When habits become a pitfall
I took a look at my life myself, backwards and forwards, from as empty a head as possible, to pick what had ripened. The past few years have been physically painful and intense ones as far as my health is concerned. What is more, I tend to help support projects that are not my own. My enthusiasm tempts me into it. Although that support and collaboration does me good and enriches me, I notice that more and more of my time is gradually being consumed, at the expense of what I want to do for myself and my organisation. It is not new. I know the pattern, but it throws giving and receiving too far out of balance. 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 the things you have been doing on autopilot for years; they are just as much your habits of thought, of belief and of emotion. They often arise because they serve a certain practical purpose or bring a kind 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 you giving it a second thought.
What are the things you still do with your conscious attention? The first time you learnt to ride a bike or drive a car, you will have done so with interest. After a while your attentiveness fades and gives way to unconscious actions, while in the meantime you let whole scenarios play out in your thoughts. Your mind is no longer on what you are doing. It is the same with your thoughts and your beliefs. What thoughts go through your mind in the morning? Have you thought them on other mornings too? Do they go out to particular situations or people from the past? Then you are caught in an unconscious habit. You have left 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 freshness of the moment and the chance to look at the situation in a conscious way. Habits that are repeated over and over eventually become your inner prison. You can no longer get out. You have lost your freedom. You are locked in. You want to free yourself, 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 awareness encourages you
I had no specific wish, nothing 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 that lay open before me. As always, circumstances work with you to make your course clear. I withdrew from two projects I had been contributing to. The space in my heart became lighter, both in weight and in clarity. The proverbial cards fell favourably.
‘Open yourself to a wider perception and a greater truth.
What you believe to be real grows larger and more powerful.
You are receiving new impulses of life force.
Fire burns away all limitations.’ And so it went on. Channelled messages that gave direction with a light touch.
The effects of priorities
For years my physical ability to move had been declining. Now a new message rang out: ‘It is time to move!’ And so it was. I found the perfect guidance, attuned to what is possible for my body right now. I am sticking with this approach. I am making progress. Suddenly I knew. My first goal for 2025 is my health as an absolute priority. Everything else is measured against it. It is moving forward. The first signs of improvement are already visible. Finally being able to move more freely again. The old pattern is crumbling. A more conscious new pattern is stepping towards a dream of movement that can become reality.
From a habit of fragmentation to focus
Messages reach you in many ways. An organisational constellation about how I function within my own business showed that I needed to approach my organisation with renewed attention. ‘Renewed attention’ – that was music to my ears. Not different attention. Renewed. It felt open and playful, still unknown, yet not unfamiliar. An old habit of fragmenting my time was broken. My attention and time became consciously focused again. It became my second goal for 2025.
Aware-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 for a walk every day, you can do so unconsciously or consciously. It is the second version that gives you choices, allowing a different result to emerge. This might be a different route or a different pace. It is a challenge to do everything you do consciously, but the reward is great. Intention and repetition also play a crucial role. Habits are not formed overnight, nor are they unlearnt in one go. Small, consistent changes, however, can have an enormous impact in the long run.
Creative awareness
Two goals 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 to see 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 develop. Discernment will decide which of them see the light of day. Although I would love to tell you all about them, I will keep my lips sealed for a little while longer. All in good time.
A new lease of life
In March 2023 the heart specialist told me that my life expectancy was limited to September 2023. At most. That is how it felt, too. September 2023 is now a year and a half behind us. I have come back, and not just a little. I have been given a new lease of life. My gratitude is immense. 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 now. What will it be like a year and a half from now?
From habit to transformation
So there is only one thing for it. When you start using your habits consciously, they become a powerful instrument for personal and collective growth. This asks you to experience every moment as new and to approach it in a new way too. Everything seems fresh. You feel more alive. Your conscious relationship with your body, your thoughts, your beliefs and your emotions sets 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, however. It needs your conscious perception and conscious action! Suppose you consciously practised gratitude or breathing every day, or asked open questions instead of passing automatic judgements – what would happen then? The beautiful thing is that you can also do this with the everyday things you are busy with: tying your shoelaces, doing the ironing, putting on your make-up, working in the garden or attending a meeting. There is an abundance of opportunities to practise with. Aware-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 that unmasks 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 treatment, I cared for 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. There is nothing to be done about it.’ This is an answer I can do nothing with and, at the same time, a great deal. An answer like that spurs me into action.
When my priority for 2025 became clear, my empty head and my open-space heart cried out in unison: ‘Your knees are about flexibility.’ I knew that already, of course. ‘You refuse to give up and change certain habits. That is where your answer lies.’ Interesting. I felt no urge to look away or to be indignant. That one sentence said everything I needed to know. That was something I could work with. It made me happy. I could get to work with it. It is clear to me which habits are in line for it. In fact, I had already been working on it from the moment I decided on a renewed focus. But it became more. I resolved to take a playful and enjoyable look at all my habits this year and to see at which levels more awareness can seep in. I sense that I am going to have fun with it and learn a great deal. I am going to do this lovingly, without loathing my old habits. I will take my leave of them lovingly and with gratitude. Step by step. There are many days in a year.
This article, at any rate, is already one result of the message from my knees.
What about you?
Do you fancy taking stock of your habits in a playful way? Do you feel like making space and refreshing them with aware-BEING? May I give you a tip? If you write down where you are now, which old pattern you are changing and how you are introducing something new, you will have an overview of your growth by the end of the year.
With greetings full of zest for life
Hilde Van Bulck
Awareness Architect, Systemic constellation facilitator and consultant
Director of Constellations and Education at Constellators International.
