Happy New Year! BYE 2020. A new beginning, a rebirth, a continuation which still holds the potential for renewal.
I don’t exactly believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I do subscribe to setting intentions and themes of evolution for the year ahead. The term resolution seems to put a time stamp of change, making the calendar/Gregorian year some kind of firm container and that anything can be achievable in a single year.
For example as some of you know I have been working with the theme of prioritizing rest, joy, pleasure, and play formally since January 2019. If it were a resolution, I might view this as a failure. As a theme and intention, we can make space for the reality that big shifts often involve stages; we may not wish to burn our current structures to the ground in order to implement new ones, but rather do deep rooting, rebalancing, uncovering, and nurturing into new ways of being. We also can acknowledge that oppressive systems often create significant barriers both tangible and internal that work against certain goals. Capitalistic pressures and societal norms may make some intentions flow more easily and others shift with great slowness.
In fact I had resolved definitively that I was not going to do any “work” at all this week but I could not help writing this to you today as a direct extension from my heart- if it’s rooted in love can it still be work? I’m not sure! #progressnotperfection
I find journaling to be a helpful way to clarify the experiences of the previous year and begin calibrating into the next, and this process might actually unfold over the next few weeks or even months.
Some reflections I have found helpful, which perhaps can offer a template for journaling or pulling cards:
What were the most impactful, most significant changes I experienced in the past year? What are the ways I can see and feel those changes?
Where did I lose connection to myself, or get off track from my goals and desires that I may approach anew this coming year?
What did I do really well, or find most meaningful in the past year where I want to lean in even more in 2021?
If I could hone into a single intention that would have the greatest range of impact on my life, what would that be?
How would it feel in my body to be moving towards this? Maybe write a letter from your future self letting you know.
What is one tangible step I could take towards that intention this month?
Maybe even thinking on this day, January 1, what can you do to symbolically commit to supporting yourself today? What’s a concrete action that would say “I mean it, I’m starting right now.”
Maybe it’s taking a bath, taking a walk outside, some deep breaths, watering your plants, or even cooking an enjoyable meal. I often say this in reiki practice but the experience of our thoughts, which are physically manifest through electrical signals moving through the brain, are a form of energy. Any action completed with intention, shifts our energy and allows for the spark of creation. ✨
“Joy emerges out of wholeness. Knowing that there’s nothing else to do. We say ‘oh, that’s defeat.’ — No, that’s Joy.”
– Rev, angel Kyodo Williams
Inward Vision 