Happy New Year!

Of course, joy is like a mother who only comes to the party if all her children are invited. To connect with the happiness that awaits us in the new year, we have to expand enough to hold all that comes along with being a human living a meaningful and fulfilling life, without resistance.

So instead I’ll wish you a new year fully connected with the rich diversity of experience inherent in a life worth living. May you evolve beyond the black and white to embrace the rainbow.

In service of this evolution, I’m gifting you the reflection and ritual of New Year’s Journaling prompts. 

My hope is that you will light a candle, pull out your favorite pen, and connect with your deep, honest self. Let us release all that no longer serves us and pick up all the wisdom available to us by looking back.

And then, we’ll look forward, to set our intentions for what we want to call in for the new year.

Reflecting on the last year

1. Call forth a hard moment you experienced in the last year.
2. What qualities inherent to your unique and personal way of being were resources in moving through that hard moment?
3. What conscious choices did you make in response to this hard moment?
4. How were those choices different than the automatic responses you felt initially drawn toward?
5. What did you learn from this hard experience?
6. If you could go back and guide that past version of you in walking through this experience, what might you do differently?
7. What meaning did you story from this experience about yourself, others, and the world?
8. What revelations did you connect with last year about yourself, others, and the world?
9. What coping strategies that served you well in early years did you set down as no longer fitting last year?
10. What did you replace them with?
11. What healing did you gift yourself last year?
12. What healing did you offer to others?
13. What did you savor last year?
14. What dream did you fulfill last year?
15. In what way did you make your inner child proud last year?
16. What new insight did you glean about yourself last year?
17. What long held belief about yourself did you release as inauthentic to who you actually are?
18. What belief about others did you release as ill-fitting or untrue?
19. What belief about the world did you set down?
20. What new skill did you gain last year?
21. What new activity did you try last year?
22. What new place did you visit or explore last year?
23. What new person did you connect with or what person did you deepen your connection with last year?
24. What new sensory flavor did you try last year (a food, scent, color, etc.)?
25. What hard conversation were you brave enough to have last year?
26. What boundary were you able to clearly and confidently establish last year?
27. What did you contribute toward community care last year?
28. How did you nurture your body well last year?
29. How did you connect with creativity last year?
30. What responsibility or obligation did you set down last year?
31. In what moment did you connect with playful joy last year?
32. In what moment did you embody love last year?
33. How did you connect with nature last year?
34. How did your relationship with anxiety/your inner protector evolve last year?
35. How is this version of you that stands today different than the version of you that stood one year ago?

Setting intentions for the new year

1. Wellness: How will you proactively nurture your needs this year?
2. Relationships: How will you elevate the quality of connection with your people this year?
3. Growth: How will you feed your evolution this year?
4. Adventure: How will you engage the playful challenge of expansion through experience this year?
5. Home: How will you curate a beautiful and supportive sanctuary this year?
6. Service: How will you fulfill your calling for contribution?
7. Nature: How will you honor your connection with the natural world?
8. What expectations are you leaving behind for the new year?
9. What boundaries are you establishing in the new year?
10. What requests are you making in the new year?
11. What beliefs are you questioning in the new year?
12. What new skill will you learn in the new year?
13. What topic will you deep dive into learning more about in the new year?
14. What hard experience might you have in the new year?
15. How will you respond to the hard experience?
16. How do you hope the version of you that stands at the end of this year will be different than the version of you that stands today?

Need support in breaking through with your healing and growth in the new year? Reach out for some therapy or coaching.