New Year’s Rituals

For all that has been—-Thanks! For that shall be—-Yes!   Dag Hammarskjold

New Year’s is the perfect time to set-up rituals that support you letting go of the past year with grace, and welcoming the new year with hope.  I’d like to share the rituals I began about ten years ago to honor the power of this time of year.

The week after Christmas through New Year’s Eve I spend time reflecting on the past year in my journal.  Below is an outline of what I reflect upon:

Overall Summary of the past year

 I write about the challenges, gifts, and surprises this past year brought.  I sometimes use my calendar to jog my memory.  I reflect on specific categories of my life. Again I write about the challenges, gifts, and surprises each category brought me.  The categories I reflect upon are:

Spirituality      Relationships       Health

Another ritual I follow is choosing a word that I would like to embody for the coming year.  My word for 2018 was Receive.  I write about how I opened myself to receive the gifts and challenges brought to me this past year.

New Year’s Day

On New Year’s Day I follow the same structure of overall summary, and the categories. I write my hopes and intentions for each for the coming year.  I do not write New Year’s resolutions, but rather my intentions of how I want to show-up in each category.  I then reflect on the word I choose to embody for 2019—how that word might look in action.

Finally, I keep my journal’s reflection from the past year and read through it to see how I lived my intentions and how I embodied my word.

May you create your own rituals to reflect on the past year and focus on the coming year, and may your New Year be blessed with good health, joy, and peace.