Happy New Year.
It’s the perfect time to create a great 2016.
I know people can get down on New Year’s resolutions and grumpy about how disappointed we feel when they don’t work out.
But, a new year is a fresh start. A time to step back and look at your 2015, release what didn’t work and move forward into the new year with a vision of what you do want
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I love to look through my journals, pictures and calendars and really mull over how things are going as I prepare for a new year. Life is pretty busy so I give myself the whole month of January to just sort of browse through my experiences. Every year it feels like SO MUCH happened and then, also, like so much is exactly the same.
I also love lists.
Gratitude
So, I write a list of what was amazing and what I am so grateful for from the previous year- anything from: family vacations, no more back pain, a wood stove, finally finding the perfect pillow, having a gorgeous stash of beeswax candles, having great clients, playing new card games with the family. You get it. Anything.
Just keep going and you’ll find more and more.
Even if it was a really difficult year, there are some things to be grateful for – hot showers, salt and pepper (people used to have to cross deserts for those!) clouds….
Gratitude improves your health and well-being, even just noticing the things that make you feel happy can really shift your state of mind and how you feel.
(Here’s an article that talk about the scientific benefits of gratitude:
And looking at a whole year gives you time to reflect on what happened and really appreciate all the marvelous and mundane things that make up our lives. This creates more awareness about what you want to create in the coming year and gives you credit for all that you did. (Again, even if some years, the miracle is that you survived!)
Releasing
I also write a list of what I’m releasing and letting go. That’s really fun because you can let it all out. We often hold onto weird limiting beliefs that hold us back even though they aren’t logical or conscious. Just set a timer and do some free-writing for 3 minutes and write about all you want to get rid of. It can be ways you feel like you were wronged, choices you made that ended up making you feel terrible, patterns you’ve had from childhood that you can’t seem to shake.
Then, you can get rid of that yuck.
This year I did three different things to let go of what holds me back.
1. Some epic solitary EFT/Tapping sessions on each of the issues.
(How to tap video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_6VLi9MUds)
2. A forgiveness practice that I discovered this year and I love. It weirdly works very quickly and makes you feel so much lighter. Here’s a link to an explanation of the very simple practice
3. Throw it in the fire!!!
I took my list and read each habit/experience/story that I wanted to release out loud (after everyone had gone to bed :)) and declared that I was letting it go. Then tossed the list in in my wood stove! It was very cathartic to watch it burn. Doing rituals with candles, fire, water, incense, essential oils and other traditional spiritual/religious tools work because they engage your subconscious/unconscious mind- the part of your ancient brain that responds to the colors, scents and sounds of the elements. Let that part of your brain and spirit in on the process of releasing and you create an opening for powerful shifts. I certainly felt it. You can burn a list or something symbolic; releasing it into a bonfire, a wood stove or fireplace or even burn it it in the sink with a candle. It feels dramatic- (especially if it sets off fire alarms!)
The next phase is creating a dream or template for the coming year. I’ll write about that next week.
Good luck with celebrating and releasing.
Let me know in an email or in comments on the blog if you have any favorite ways of starting the new year and releasing the old!
Here’s a little video I made of a candle burning outside on New Year’s. I love to watch the flickering light as it sways in the peach tree.
