It’s A New Year!

“Each moment of the year has its own beauty” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you feel like you are starting off the year as a runner beginning a race? Ready, set, go! As if there is a start and finish to life? The energy of new beginnings, goals, visions and dreams for the year surround all of us during January and sometimes it feels like a push rather than a pull.

Though our year has shifted to 2017, we are still in the heart of winter. And winter isn’t about doing and planning. It’s about renewal, quiet, reflection and hibernation. I know that might not sound fun but either does forcing ourselves into a box and striving for what’s next when we aren’t even ready.

What if we allowed the seasons to guide us instead of the manmade calendar? Winter is cold, the days are short and nights are long, and we may spend more time in doors (depending on where we live). You may love this time of year because it offers quiet, rest, family time and warm foods or despise it for other reasons, but it’s hard to be present when we are jumping ahead to set goals and accomplish them.

Don’t get me wrong. I love choosing a theme for the year and envisioning all the positive things that I want to experience. I also enjoy challenging myself (as if life wasn’t challenging enough) to see a broader perspective and find purpose in all of it, set goals and create vision boards; though I am not sure that the heart of winter is “GO TIME.”

That doesn’t mean stay at home and alone and suffer either (though that may arise too; it is aligned with this time of year). I believe this can and will look different for each of us as we are all different people with our own life experiences and challenges.

For me, it means that I give myself permission to experience life in flow with the seasons. That deep-down I know there is a cycle and process that I am not directly in control of and I am willing to let that be (because I don’t have a choice and it brings me peace to let go.)

If you are feeling like you’d like to start the year in connection to nature and God consider the following:

  • Give yourself permission to feel and be whatever your experiencing without forcing a change just yet. This may be uncomfortable and painful. Can you allow it to be and see it as an important part of this season?
  • Reflect on what is happening in nature? Find presence in the natural order of this world.
  • Declutter and create spaciousness for the year. Space that you do not need to fill right way – just openness.
  • Release the ideas, stories and fears that are not serving you by writing them down and burning them in the sink or visualize them disappearing.
  • Journal about what “BEING” vs “DOING” means to you.

Sending you my love and compassion for what’s real in your life right now. May this year be filled with possibility, humor and peace of mind.

Love and light,

Orly