Happy New Year readers! With a new year comes new beginnings, opportunities for more laughter, opportunities for radical success, opportunities for connection and so much more. Maybe you've made some resolutions. Personally, I haven't, simply because I tend to fall off the resolution bandwagon rather quickly.

Still, would it really be a New Year without at least a little bit of reflection and prepaving for how I'd like to see 2019 play out?

Last year, I set out to make 2018 the year of fearlessness. In all honesty readers, it's hard to be fearless all the time. I realize that there are times in 2018 where I didn't fully live up to my expectations: I let people take away my joy, I wasn't always courageous or didn't always speak my mind fully. But readers, all of this is okay.

2019 will be different and here's why: 2019 is the year to navigate with love.

Like I said earlier, sometimes it's hard to respond to situations with fearlessness. I think that being a state of fearlessness isn't the natural state yet for me to be in, and I think that's natural and part of the process of being human. At least for me, I've found, however, that you can always choose to respond with love.

Where does this phrase come from? Last November, I attended a retreat called Search. Navigate with love was the motto for the weekend, and it's something I want to carry with me into the new year.

The definition of navigate is to "plan and direct the route or course of a ship, aircraft, or other form of transportation, especially by using instruments or maps."

I point this out because it is important to realize that when we navigate our actions, we have a direction, a sense of purpose.

This calls attention to the general journey of life and process of things and how it is in our power to choose how we want to live our lives.

The way I see it, navigating with love applies not only to your relationships with others, but to yourself as well. It is so easy to be hard on yourself over your appearance, accomplishments, feelings, and more. Recently, I've felt called more and more to affirm how I love and approve myself and this idea fits into the idea of navigating with love.

When we navigate with love, we choose to forgive ourselves for our shortcomings, and instead recognize how valued, important and worthy we are simply because we exist.

When we navigate with love, we speak kindly to ourselves, and feel a sense of joy in being alive.

In terms of our relationships with others, navigating with love means making a clear decision to respond to all situations from this feeling of love. Instead of a knee jerk reaction of frustration or annoyance, love can provide us with the push we need to resolve any conflicts that come up.

I've always felt that any act is an act of love or an act intended at love, and I think this motto is the push I need, the push we all need, to make these conscious acts of love.

I truly believe that love is the answer to all problems we have in this life. Loving ourselves, loving others, loving this beautiful earth, is life changing.

Keeping this motto at the forefront of our minds is something that I hope you will all take with you, readers. Simply having an awareness of your conscious choice to be gentle with yourselves, to be gentle with others, will change the way you interact daily. With this motto in mind, 2019 ought to be the best year yet :)

Here's to a year of navigating with love, no matter where life takes you.

Talk soon,

Sam