It is the time of the year again! The last month of the year is always busy with holidays, celebrations and traveling. It can also be stressful and overwhelming at times for a lot of people. Perhaps it’s the pressure to finish up whatever tasks or to-do lists on hand. Perhaps it’s the planning of the holidays. Perhaps it’s dealing with heightened emotions and expectations from certain family members. We may feel like we’re getting swept up by everything happening outside of us.
However, the end of the year is also a great time for us to reflect over the past year, and to mindfully set our intention to welcome the new year.
In today’s blog, I want to share with you four steps to mindfully welcome the new year. This is such a great gift for yourself during this busy time of the year. I highly recommend taking some solo reflective time for yourself to do this. These steps don’t have to be done all in one session. You can take your time at your own pace, and you don’t have to feel pressured to complete them before new year’s eve. These steps can also be done in the first month of the new year, or whenever you are going through a transition in your life.
Take some time to reflect over the past year. Journaling is a great tool to help us process our thoughts honestly, without the need to correct, analyze or judge what we write down.
Some journaling prompts that you can use are:
- What were some significant events that happened the past year?
- What were your highs and lows the past year?
- What were your achievements the past year?
- What were your key learnings and takeaways from the above questions? Even if you did make a “mistake”, what can you learn from it?
- Compare to one year ago, how have you grown and evolved?
- What emotions, beliefs, habits, relationships, attachments do you feel that are no longer aligned with your current self? Make a note for yourself to prepare for the release exercise in the next step.
If you already have some ideas of what you want to manifest for the new year, you can also write them down.
If you have a long to-do list in your head that you feel like you need to complete before the end of the year, I invite you to write them all down. Every single thing that you need or want to do. This will give you more mental space to reflect instead of constantly worrying about what you need to do.
Once you have a list of what you want to release and let go, prepare for a simple fire ceremony.
Write down all the things you want to release on pieces of paper, preferably one topic for one paper. Find a heat resistant bowl and make sure you are in a safe environment to burn the paper. Always have water by your side in case you need to extinguish the fire that has gone out of control.
Light your candle first. Then read out what you wrote on one piece of paper. Allow the feelings associated with what you wrote come up, and blow that feeling with your exhale onto the piece of paper. Imagine all those feelings are now transferred to this piece of paper, and then burn the paper in your heat resistant bowl. Witness how the fire burns your paper. Then move on to the next piece of paper, read it out loud, blow onto it, and burn it and so on until you finish burning all your paper. Thank the fire for transmuting all that you have released to the Universe. Wait for the ashes to cool down, and you can release the ashes to the earth if possible, or to water (or the toilet bowl is also fine depending on where you live).
If fire is not available or safe to use in where you live, consider using the other elements in nature such as water, earth and air.
For water you can consider writing down what you want to release in water-soluble paper, or use leaves, flowers, or stones and release them in any bodies of water that you have permission to do so. Toilet water also counts.
For earth, if you have a garden of your own, you can consider burying what you want to release with symbolic objects from nature.
For air, you can consider blowing bubbles into the air and imagine what you intend to release are carried away with bubbles. This is also a fun release exercise that you can do with children.
By performing a simple release ceremony with the elements of nature, you have created new space within your energy field for something new to come.
Ask yourself what word you will choose for yourself for the new year, and that word will be your theme for the year. Your word of the year will help shape what you’d like to focus on for the upcoming year. You can do so through journaling, or just sit with the question throughout your day and allow the answer to come to you.
Once you have chosen your word of the year, you can write it down or draw it out on a piece of paper, and stick it somewhere that you can see daily as a reminder.
For some extra fun, you can also choose a song as your theme song of the year, so every time when you listen to the song, it reminds you of what you want to focus on.
Tune into your current state and ask yourself what it is that you want to feel right now. This intention doesn’t need to relate to your word of the year necessarily. Rather this intention is meant to bring focus on what you want to feel now, whether it’s the end of the year or beginning of the new year.
An intention is an anchor for us to return to our heart and what is important to us now. By focusing on what we want to feel now instead of how we will get there, we release the “how” to the Universe and trust that we will be guided by our intuition and the Universe to get there.
An intention can also serve as a filter for us to live a more aligned life with our mind,nheart and soul. For example, if my intention is that I feel energized, when I’m facing a decision, my intention can serve as a reminder whether or not this certain choice energizes me or drains me.
Write down your intention on a piece of paper and place it somewhere you can see as a daily reminder. You can also read it out loud for yourself on a daily basis to reinforce your intention.
For more details on how to set an intention and guidelines on how to write your intention, check out my blog here: How to Set Intention as Part of Your Spiritual Practice
Conclusion
Though the end of the year can be stressful at times, it is also a magical time to take a pause to honor our journey.
During this process, make sure to hold space for yourself without judgment or criticism. It is important to hold an attitude of curiosity with a hint of playfulness. Make sure you are in a quiet space so you won’t be disturbed for at least 10 minutes to do your own reflections over the past year. You may find that your priorities may have shifted, and that is okay because you are now a different person than you were one year ago.
Give yourself time and space to properly say goodbye to the old you. Sometimes emotions may come up which is perfectly normal. Allow yourself to feel these emotions to complete the release process. As we release what no longer serves us, we will find more clarity on what we want to create and have more energy to bring forth our ideas to manifest in the physical world.
Once you have done the above, be really proud of yourself of how far you have come in your journey. I encourage you to say the following statement out loud, “I’m proud of myself for…” because you are truly amazing and I am so proud of you for doing this work for yourself.
Special New Year Classes: Recalibrate Yourself from Transformation to Truth
From cacao ceremony to sound healing, labyrinth walk to meditation in the dark, we have a variety of special year end classes to recalibrate your vibration to the new year. Come celebrate the arrival of the new year mindfully with our special classes at Museflower.
