Unfortunately, not many people in our world know how to be loving and kind to themselves and others on a daily basis. Moreover, far too many people still have to struggle too much in this world to have any energy left over for love and kindness. But even affluent Westerners tend to spend so much time complaining about life that they have no energy left for bringing more love and light into our troubled world.

If you long to be truly kind and loving, if you want to be a help rather than a nuisance in the world, you have to learn how to open your heart to life. You also have to empower yourself with a radiant energy, or light, that will protect and guide you through all of life’s endless challenges. You have to feel strong and safe in order to be genuinely loving. But you will not feel safe and secure, if your energy centres, particularly the three lower ones, are not strong and filled with radiant energy.

Weak people have to compensate for their weakness by trying to grab something from others, but when you feel strong, you can simply open your heart and extend love and kindness to everyone you meet. This in turn will really assist you to feel stronger and safer in the world.

So please take a vow to begin cultivating loving kindness in 2012 by being kind to yourself. Don’t wait for a guardian angel to find you a parking spot, become your own guardian angel. Each day, do something to look after your physical body and your emotional well-being. Go to the park in your lunch break and sit and meditate under a tree for a few minutes, or do some gentle Chi Kung in a peaceful area of your home when you get back from work.

Don’t wait to be happy until the perfect lover or job turns up –you will wait forever. Start by cultivating unconditional love and kindness towards yourself, regardless of your circumstances. Take a sincere vow to be happy in spite of what is going on in the world around you, and then do something on a daily basis to increase your sense of well-being. Don’t join everyone else by constantly moaning and groaning about your life. This in itself will simply depress you, and then your depressed energy will attract more depressing events into your aura.

Just because you are facing some challenges in life is no excuse to be miserable. Some people live their whole lives moaning and groaning about their lot and doing virtually nothing to change it. Most people actually change very little throughout their lives. They learn their life lessons very slowly. True growth always involves courage. Being comfortable is not conducive for personal or spiritual growth. We grow because we face challenges in life. So you can actually welcome challenges in 2012 by knowing that they will really assisting you to grow and evolve faster. However you will need to keep raising your vibrations or consciousness if you want to rise above challenges rather than drown in them.

If you keep raising your vibrations on a daily basis, for example, by practising some Tai Chi, and Chi Kung or meditating, you will greatly increase your chances of achieving lasting happiness in 2012, regardless of what is happening to the economy etc. The more we raise our consciousness up above the relatively low level of fearful collective consciousness, the more real choices we will have in life.

In this world, unexpected events do just keep happening, but you always have a choice as to how you interpret whatever is happening to you. You can choose to be a victim of the external world and insist ‘They did this to me. They are the cause of my unhappiness’. Or you can be very brave and accept that your unhappiness is created by your own mind, no-one else’s.

Once you make this brave decision, you can start to become the master of your own life. This is truly liberating. Your car breaks down and you no longer react as though it was a complete tragedy. The weather is cold and wet, and instead of complaining about it all day long, you tell yourself it is the perfect day to indulge in a hot chocolate with whipped cream on top. Your partner is in a grumpy mood and instead of allowing their energy to pull you down, you focus on cultivating radiant chi and then extending it to them so that your home is filled with positive energy.

Does this sound like hard work to you? I confess that it does initially take a lot of will-power and effort to stay cheerful when the world around you is determined to drown in fear and misery. But I can categorically assure you, based on my own long-term determination to dwell in love day in and day out, that every effort you make to be loving and kind, whether to yourself or to others, will pay miraculous dividends in the year ahead. Don’t trust me on this one. Experiment for yourself and find out that taking a vow to live your life in love, regardless of your circumstances, is one of the most life-enhancing decisions you can ever take.