Every year I feel like the month of December passes by in a blink of the eye. With the holiday season, social gatherings, exchanging gifts, traveling and more, it is easy to be immersed in the chaos of “doing”.
I don’t consider a problem to be immersed in more “doing” when we can balance it with a little bit of “being”. I believe there is always a cycle of different rhythms. To me, December has always been a busy month for both work and family celebrations. There are months when I will have more down time to be myself, and December happens to the month when I’m with people most of the time.
I’m an introvert by nature, so I need solo time to recharge my batteries. But even if you identify yourself as an extrovert, it is still a nourishing practice to have some solo sacred time to reconnect with your body, mind, heart and soul before the year ends.
In today’s blog, I’d like to share five simple ways on how you can prepare for the end of the year emotionally and mentally, so you can feel ready for the new year ahead.
To me, my spiritual practice such as meditation, journaling and chanting help me to stay anchored and grounded amidst of all the chaos of “doing”. In other words, my spiritual practice helps me stay sane and nourished, so I can carry on doing what I need to do on a daily basis.
I would definitely recommend carving out time for yourself as a non-negotiable this month, and use this solo sacred time to do some reflective journaling. This solo sacred time does not need to take a whole day, though I would recommend at least a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes.
Giving yourself this luxury of time and space amidst of all the doing is an investment for your spirit. Consider this your Christmas gift for yourself.
Support: For more tips on finding time for your own spiritual practice during this busy time, check out my blog on “6 Tips on How to Make Meditation Easy for Busy People” here: https://musefloweretreat.com/6-tips-on-how-to-make-meditation-easy-for-busy-people/
2. Reflective journaling for the past year
There is no better time than the end of the year to reflect on the past year, to celebrate how far you have come, to honor the lessons you have learned, and to acknowledge any emotions that arise during this process.
Journaling your reflections can often help you process any lingering emotions and perhaps give you a bigger picture or a new perspective on why certain things happened in the past.
This is a key practice to help make space for your mind and heart to move forward for the new year. If you don’t have time for anything else, be sure to make reflective journaling your top priority.
Support: I have written two blogs on journaling before, one on how to get started on journaling, and the other one on three journaling prompts that can help you to reflect over the past year.
Journaling for Beginners: How to get started on journaling: https://www.taniaho.me/journaling-for-beginners-how-to-get-started-on-journaling/
Three Journaling Exercises to Reflect on 2020: https://musefloweretreat.com/three-journaling-exercises-to-reflect-on-2020/
3. Stay grounded
It is easy to be swept away from the busyness of the holiday season. The point is not to fight and resist (or resent) the chaos but to embrace the chaos and go with the flow. Often chaos leads to new opportunities for growth and new experiences for wisdom to emerge.
Having said that, we can also do so with grace if we remember to stay grounded. Being grounded means to stay in the present moment, so our mind is not constantly thinking about the past or future. Keeping ourselves grounded also means to come back to our center, so we are not consumed by the drama of it all.
And if you do slip out of balance, that is completely okay. It happens. You are only human. Be kind and gentle to yourself. It’s the holidays – give yourself a break!
Support: For more tips on how to stay grounded, check out my blog on “4 Quick Grounding Tips that You Can Do At Home” here: https://musefloweretreat.com/4-quick-grounding-tips-that-you-can-do-at-home/
4. Release what no longer serves you
If you have written your word of the year, affirmations, intentions, goals and resolutions for the past year, the end of the year is a great time to release all of them, in additional to any other limiting beliefs, narratives, emotions, behaviors, attachments to situations and/or people, and stories that no longer serve you.
Personally I love to write everything out on paper (one topic for one piece of paper) and burn them. But sometimes when I don’t have time do the fire release ceremony yet, I will write or draw one to two things that come to my mind that I want to release, and I will keep them in a jar on my altar. The act of leaving the paper in the jar symbolically means that I give all that I want to release to the Universe, and trust that the Universe is here to support me.
Decluttering your space, whether it is your physical home space, work space, or digital space, is also another great way to release what no longer serves you.
Support: Check out my tip no. 7 on doing a simple ceremony to give yourself closure in my blog “7 Tips on How to Manage Transitions” for some simple instructions on creating your own release ceremony: https://musefloweretreat.com/7-tips-on-how-to-manage-transitions/
You can also check out my decluttering tips from my blog “Top 9 Tips to Start Decluttering Physically Mentally and Emotionally” for some ideas: https://musefloweretreat.com/top-9-tips-to-start-decluttering-physically-mentally-and-emotionally/
If you are coming to Museflower, you can join our end-of-year fire release ceremony happening on December 31, 2022 from 10.30am – 12pm. For more details you can check out our class and event schedule here.
5. Honor and celebrate your progress
Do an inventory of all your positive and negative experiences this past year, and identify what your top one to three lessons have been. How did these experiences shape who you are today? What have you learned from them? Do you notice a recurring theme that comes up for you?
All life experiences, no matter whether we label them as positive or negative, can bring us wisdom. And it’s absolutely okay if we cannot see what the blessing in disguise is for some of these experiences yet. Focus on the ones that you can, and celebrate how far you have come.
You are not the same as you were one year ago. And when we can take away the judgment on that, knowing that we are not better or worse than last year but we are just growing and evolving like everyone else, say thank you to yourself. Say thank you to your past self. Say thank you to your current self. You deserve it.
Support: If you want more support on releasing what no longer serves you, and to honor the celebrate your journey the past year together, consider joining our Museflower Soul Retreat – Dare to be Happy from December 26 -29, 2022.
Conclusion
The last month of the year can slip away so quickly before we all know it, so I hope that you can really carve out some sacred solo time just to be by yourself.
My last suggestion is that instead of making the last day of the year as your ultimate deadline to get everything done (such as reflecting for the past year, and setting new intentions and goals for the new year), take this entire last lunar cycle of the year from December 23, 2022 to January 20, 2023 to find time to be.
Feel free to adapt any of my suggestions above to make them easy and accessible to you.
I wish you a fun and jolly holiday season!
Do you have any other ways on how you prepare for the year end emotionally and mentally?
Feel free to share with me here, I’d love to hear from you.
From Dec 26 – 29, 2022, this year at Museflower we will be hosting a special retreat called “Museflower Soul Retreat – Dare to be Happy” where we will be exploring different meditation and wellness modalities, such as labyrinth walk, Shamanic journey, breathwork, and kirtan chanting.
One of our aims of this retreat is for you to experience spiritual practices that can be fun and light-hearted, and can also bring you a lot of joy.
The purpose of this retreat is help you recharge in nature, connect with your spiritual support team for guidance, and to experience joy and bliss that spring from within you.
Want to learn more about this once-in-a-lifetime retreat happening this December? Read on below for more information
What is this Retreat about?
“Dare to be Happy” is our soul retreat break to help busy people recharge in nature – and remind us that we can choose to be happy at any stage in life’s journey.
By spending time to connect with nature, and learning to receive support from the Universe, we can lean into joy, celebrate where we are now, and embrace new adventures to come.
How can this retreat help you?
- Feel recharged and energized for the new year ahead
- Experience more joy and bliss through connecting with nature and chanting
- Release any limiting beliefs that stop you from experiencing joy in your life
- Be open to receive from your spiritual support team
- Gain insights on your life path
- Learn new wellness tools in a light-hearted and fun way
- Labyrinth walks for grounding, meditation and tuning into your intuition
- Shamanic journeys to connect with your power animal and inner teacher
- Breathwork
- Restorative yoga class
- Tai Chi and Qi Gong class
- Fire release ceremony
- Cacao ceremony
- Kirtan (chanting)
- Sound bath
- Nature Mandala
