Between holiday festivities, endless errands, shopping sales, travelling and closing the year at work, the end of the calendar year can creep up on us before we may feel ready. While we may have plans for celebrating the new year with friends and loved ones, most of us probably don’t take the time to really reflect on the ending year and make room in our lives for the new one.
The energies of the end of the year however really line up to support us as we release the old and make space for the new. Before you plant the seeds for the garden of 2013, you want to get rid of the weeds of 2012 and fertilize your soil. Even with the holiday busyness, finding some time to try the following tips may help you feel at peace with the ending year and ready to embrace a fresh new one, with gratitude, faith and excitement in your heart. So, try one or all, whatever resonates with you and whatever you can fit in!
As the year comes to a close, find some time to actually reflect back on it. What were some gifts and pleasant surprises? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? Could you cultivate even more growth and lessons from your experiences? What are you grateful for? Make a list of the above to see how this past year has really enriched your life and built your character, and how the lessons and growth will serve you moving forward.
2. Forgive and Release
Think of a relationship that you really struggled with this year. Write a letter to that person which you won’t actually mail to them – this is just for your healing process. Write out all your feelings uncensored, even things you maybe didn’t admit to yourself. At the end of the letter, write, “Even though I feel all this, I am now willing to release this experience from my energy and life for my highest good. I now forgive and release you. I ask that all karma between us be healed, balanced and forgiven in all directions of time. There is nothing unfinished between us. You are free, and I am free.”
Now imagine energetic cords between you both and using an imaginary sword of light, sever the cord, seeing anything toxic between you being transformed into light. Very safely, burn the letter and imagine every negative aspect of that relationship now being surrendered to the universe for transmutation. Take some breaths, and enjoy your new lightness. This is an extremely powerful exercise that shifts things on a spiritual level, and can create miraculous changes in your experience with the person – keeping the lessons and love, and releasing anything that no longer serves you.
3. Clear Your Space
Just as you clear the space in yourself, clearing the space in your home is also a powerful ritual before a new year. We hear a lot about spring cleaning, but why not get a head start and let go of things in your home so new blessings can enter? In Feng Shui – the ancient Chinese art of getting “chi” or life force energy to flow freely into your space and therefore your life – clutter clearing is one of the most basic and powerful steps you can take to activate good chi.
Start by making a list of the rooms (even closets, cupboards and drawers) that you want to clutter clear, and prioritize them by which will have the greatest impact on you (maybe a central area). Start getting rid of things you no longer need and ensure that everything in your space is either something you love and uplifts your energy, or is very useful. After your clean the space, perform and energy clearing ritual by smudging sacred sage (found at new age or health food stores) and set an intention to release all the energy in your home and your life that doesn’t serve you. Then, go in each corner of your home and the center of each room, say a prayer or new intention (“I now welcome love and laughter” in your family room, “I invite rest and romance” in your bedroom etc.) and clap your hands three times after each intention. This activates and amplifies the new energy, and ushers in new blessings into your home and life.
4. Try a Cleanse
With endless holiday treats and rich foods that we are all guilty of indulging in, this is a great time to do a short cleanse. Doctor Oz has a couple of three-day detox plans on his website that are simple and feasible to do. Add a sea salt bath (or scrub if you don’t have a bath) to your cleanse routine, as the salt not only detoxifies your physical body, it also clears your energetic body. By cleansing, you are further clearing the way for a healthier, happier you in the new year.
5. Get Grounded
This is something you want to do all the time and not just at the end of the year, but because there is so much transitional energy in the air (especially with the Mayan calendar end/dawn of a new world age), it’s essential to stay rooted. You can do this easily by making sure you spend time in nature every day (I know it’s cold, but even five minutes will help). Imagine as you stand that there are roots growing from beneath your feet into the heart of Mother Earth, see your body as a tree, with your arms reaching up to the heavens. This is a great way to feel connected to earth and open to the guidance and support of the universe. If you have plants and flowers at home (buy some if you don’t!) touching them or looking at them for a few minutes can help you get calm and centered again.
6.Remember Your Spirit
No matter what your religious of spiritual orientation, meditation and prayer are two powerful ways to connect with your spirit – the part of you that knows pure peace, love and light. They say prayer is when you ask, and meditation is when you receive. This is a practice worth cultivating on a daily basis (five or more minutes in the morning and evening). By starting and ending your day with conscious intention (prayer) and then taking time to go within and get still, you open yourself to more peace and joy in your inner and outer worlds. As within, so without. As above, so below.
7. Intend a New Future
Energy flows where intention goes. This is something I first learned from one of my favourite spiritual teachers, Dr. Wayne Dyer. As we meditate and get grounded, we can more easily observe the stream of thoughts we have in our waking hours. Unfortunately, most of our thoughts can be focused on what we don’t want. By becoming conscious of our thought patterns, we can actually shift them to reflect what we do want to experience instead. Making this conscious mental shift takes time and practice, but by setting new intentions of what you want to manifest, you send a very clear message to the universe about your desires. As long as you have complete faith, believe in your worthiness to receive, and can simultaneously detach from the outcome (when and how it will show up), you open yourself to being surprised and delighted by the magic of life.
You can even ground your intentions into physical reality by writing them out (in present tense, i.e. “Thank you for blessing me with perfect health, great love, meaningful success and ever expanding abundance”) and placing them on post-its around your home or putting them in a wish box – buy a pretty jewellery box or make one with supplies from a craft store. You can create a vision board or collage with pictures of scenarios you want to experience (focus more on the feeling you want rather than the actual form). By having these visual representations of your wishes and intentions, and feeling uplifted and filled with faith whenever you see them, you’ll begin to attract the experiences into form as if by magic!
By taking the time to practice some or all of the above tips, you’re working in harmony with the natural cycles of life and nature – of endings and beginnings, of releasing and rebirthing. As you prepare the garden of your life for 2013, may it flourish with all the support of the universe, and without those pesky weeds.
Happy holidays, happy new year, and Namaste.
Originally posted in Lioness Women’s Club on December 27, 2012
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