Dec 31 2020
Recently I have gotten a few requests for a summary of my “New Year’s Process”. I’ve posted about it here and there over the years, and I’ve been using it for over 10 years now. Given the doozy of a year we’ve all just had, now seems like a great time to share this. I think we can all benefit from looking down on our lives, as if we were a divine being floating above it all, and using our powers of imagination and creation to realize more beauty, pleasure, growth and wildness.
So here we go. This process can take me all day, if I am feeling particularly luxurious with time. OR I have led people through it in about 90 minutes of focused time. I like to spread out on my dining room table, with a my special New Years journal, art supplies, old magazines and my journals from the past year for review.
Step One: Set your intention
On a page in your journal, or on whatever paper you are using for this exercise, write down the following words: “I commit to love and accept myself exactly as I am.”
And then breathe this in. This enables your cells to relax enough to slip into this quasi dream-time state, to look at your life from a “meta” level perspective.
Step Two: Harvest
Review the past year, month by month. Look through your calendar, your journals, whatever you need to “visit” the past year. Start a new page in your journal and title it “2020 Harvest”. Look through your year, as if you were fast forwarding through a movie or a book, and noticing all the pivot points. The lovers, the conflicts, the conversations, the events, the births, deaths, celebrations, trips, milestones, lessons, tragedies, lessons. Let them all be there. Try to make a note of at least 12 things. Let tears come if they need to. Keep going with this process until it feels complete.
Step Three: Visit the Houses of Your Future Life
Start a new page in your journal and draw a big circle. Divide the circle into 8 or more sections. Label each section with one of the “areas of life” from the list below (or maybe you have additional ones you’d like to add).
- Family
- Spiritual
- Erotic/Romantic
- Professional/Career
- Community/Service
- Home
- Friendships/Social
- Creative
- Athletic/Fitness
- Financial
In each section of the pie, write down how you would like this area of your life to feel, or things that you would like to see happen in this area of your life.
Step Four: Get Creative
On a new page in your journal, one for each of the pie sections above, make a collage, drawing, painting or poem to further express the desired feeling you have about each area of life. Or, if you’d like to be more analytical, you can make a list of dreams for that area of your life. This is JUST PAPER… it’s OK to dream big!
Step Five: (Optional) Goal Setting
I have a mixed relationship with setting goals. I get it, goals are fun and can really be motivating. They also can be yet another thing that pulls us back into the ego-driven “samsara” of life. So sometimes, I’m psyched on goal setting, and other times, I just want to allow the dreams to work their magic in my energetic field.
If you are setting goals, I really love the practice of setting “SMART” goals. (Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Relevant and Time-Bound). Here’s more information about that process.
Step Six: (Optional) Revisit your Dreams Quarterly
It can be really fun to tap back into the “dreamy” energy of New Year’s once a quarter and see how your dreams and/or goals are progressing, or not.
So there you have it!
I hope you enjoy this process and allow some big dreamy dreams to take shape this year!
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PLEASE NOTE: If this process seems too overwhelming for you, no worries, just simplify it into something that would feel approachable. Maybe it’s as simple as making a list of mournings, celebrations and/or harvests from last year and some aspirations for the coming year. Just giving yourself open ended time to reflect is a beautiful gift to yourself. You’re worth it.
