Inspiration for re-framing a new beginning at this time of year

Hello beautiful,

Happiest of New Year’s to you! Even though we’re nearing on February, I want to share this with you today, in hopes of inspiring you in how you meet yourself through this year.

The beginning of the year can be such a powerful time to reflect on our desires and keep meeting ourselves in what’s possible. That said, I have a mixed relationship with this “new year, new you” script that’s reflected in ad after ad on the news feed. What I hear in these messages is that I need to be “new” or “better” now that 2019 is here… to try out this pill, this diet, this workout, or this new yoga practice in service of fixing what’s “wrong” with me. That somehow the Me that exists right now isn’t totally okay.

While I do believe that we are constantly evolving, growing, and learning, I also fiercely believe that treating ourselves as an improvement project—never enough and in need of constant fixing—isn’t the way home to our essential selves. I feel that it’s not about being more, better, or different than we were before… and rather about releasing and unwinding the things that are getting in the way of us being all of who we already are deep inside. It’s about grounding into the knowing that the “new me” is really just the old me, living even more authentically and having uncovered even more of what’s always been hiding below the surface.

And so, if you feel called to use the new year as an opportunity to create a vision for your life and step into even fuller embodiment, I invite you to create from a space of knowing that there’s nothing to “fix”… that you are already enough. In learning to create from a space of enoughness, a whole new possibility emerges for how we relate to our evolution. Rather than “whipping ourselves into shape,” we begin knowing how to meet ourselves with love and curiosity, deepening our devotion to that sacred longing within-beyond just January.

In service of how you’re tending to your own wellbeing this year, I’m sharing some ideas that I’ve been playing with in my own life… ideas that may guide and inspire your creation process for the year ahead:

1. Give more attention to what moves you and inspires you. So often we give our attention to what isn’t working, focusing on the endless list of things and people in our lives that aren’t in alignment with our most essential expression. This year, rather than trying to “fix” all that isn’t working, give yourself full permission to shift your attention to what is working and what you’d like to cultivate more of in your life.
2. Only say “yes” when it truly feels like YES. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of saying “yes” to things we feel like we should take on, and for many of us, it can be really challenging to say “no,” even when things we’re being invited into aren’t in alignment with our vision for our lives. While it can be challenging, practicing integrity with your “yes” and your “no” is an incredible way to play your edges and begin freeing up your energy to create what it is you truly want.
3. Feel into a word or phrase that you’d like to be your guiding light this year. Create it as an energy that you want to deepen and expand into…an energy with which you want to meet yourself and your visions. For example, it could be “creativity,” “playfulness,” or “intuition.” Whatever you choose, empower the word or phrase as something you connect back to regularly as you make your decisions and dream into what’s next.
4. Be intentional about getting off social media and connect more with others in the real time flesh. While it’s beautiful, we’re so digitally connected these days, it’s also easy to forget the power of connecting in person or over the phone with someone you care about. This year create space and time to get offline, call someone you haven’t spoken with for a while, schedule a lunch date with a friend, or commit to no screen time at night with your partner, and yourself. These are easy ways we can more intimately foster the connection with ourselves and each other.
5. Use the moon cycles as an anchor to check in with your own energy throughout the month. The moon is a beautiful mirror of our own waxing and waning cycles of energy and taking time to regularly connect with her cycles can be powerfully centering and grounding. New moons are potent times of new beginning and intention setting and full moons are times of celebration, completion, and release. Simply tracking the moon on your calendar can support you in feeling more present with and connected to your own ebbs and flows.
6. Create space for stillness. Whether it’s a formal meditation practice or something else, practice regularly honoring time for connection with yourself. We’re so conditioned in moving faster and that pattern can often create a space where we don’t have a relationship of just being with ourselves. Just being with yourself has the power to open up new noticings, and also may bring uncomfortable feelings to the surface. Let this be a practice of discovering yourself through both the comfort and discomfort. See what lights you up, where you’re moved to go and express, and be. Also, notice what gets in the way of this practice and consider how you can make honoring yourself an even higher priority.
7. Play more!  Enuff Said :).
8. Let your intuition be your guide. Give yourself permission to not always rely on your intellect. Allow yourself to follow your intuitive impulses and gut instincts. For example, when you roll out your yoga mat, can you drop the agenda and just move from your body’s desires and your intuitive knowing? Or practice intuitively making choices when it comes to self-care, releasing the “shoulds” and listening deep within. Honoring your own intuitive knowing—even in small ways—can open up so many new possibilities.

If you take just one thing from this share, my hope is that you feel inspired to re-frame a new beginning and consider how you can meet yourself differently inside your growth and self-care practices this year. At the core, I hope you feel a new possibility of meeting yourself in a kinder and gentler way and that you’re inspired to grow, take risks, and move towards your desires from a space of knowing you are already so much more than enough.

I’d love to hear what resonates for you!

with love,