Beginning Anew with Intention
Happy New Year! There’s a slight lull after the hustle and bustle of the holidays and then begins the new year. We have this tendency to push to start the new year with new goals and intentions, each year wanting to achieve more and do better. I certainly feel this and have started most of my new years with this energy including 2023. In my coaching programs and on my social media pages, there is a lot of emphasis on thinking about what you want 2023 to look like and then setting goals to help achieve those things. I am a goal setter and I absolutely write down my goals and intentions. And I believe in the value and necessity of a vision. Without a vision, without dreaming of where we want to go, we will not get there.
However, I’m feeling some tension between this very active process of setting goals and “starting the year off strong” with the call of the winter to go inward and rest deeply. Shorter days and colder weather are an invitation to mirror the processes of nature and slow down. Going inward and really connecting to our truth and to ourselves is actually vital to the process of visioning and dreaming into what is possible in our lives.
I have also learned that many of us (definitely me) tend to set goals or want to achieve outcomes without thinking about what we are going to let go of in order to create the space in our lives for this new goal. Most of us have full plates already; we are balancing families and work and self-care and health and self-improvement (and many other things). And then we set a goal that we are going to start exercising or start meditating (or do something that is important to us that we aren’t doing regularly now) but we don’t often stop to see if there is something that we can let go of or need to let go of on our list of activities or “to dos” in order to create the space for this new goal.
So for me, I have spent the last few days thinking about what I want 2023 to look like. My husband and I made some first draft goals of things we want to do together, trips we hope to take, projects we hope to complete this year, and time we want to take for ourselves. I have spent time thinking about and writing down areas of my life I want to focus on and goals I have for myself, my work, my growth. And yet, for me, the most compelling focus right now is this season of winter and what I want and need now. How do I hold the vision gently of the next year or beyond but also honor the season, go inward, and let go of busyness in order to create space for new endeavors and for rest. My spiritual teacher recently said that in order to see what comes next, we sometimes need to let go of what we are currently doing and leave space for emptiness. In that emptiness, we will be able to see into and create what’s next.
My focus for this season is to create the space to (finally) open this new integrative medicine practice and to really be with the learning of who I am in that space and what it is that I have to teach, to learn, and to share. My intention is to do less forward movement (walking, jogging, hiking) and more movement that deepens my connection to myself and goes inside (yoga, breathwork), and I intend to decrease my appointments and commitments so that I create the space that will allow me to see what is next and to see what seeds matter most to plant and cultivate in the seasons ahead.
What are you hoping to create or change this year? What do you need to let go of in order to make that change? Do you need to let go of activities? Do you need to let go of a particular way of thinking or way or moving through the world that is no longer serving you? I encourage you to connect deeply to yourself, to what matters, and very consciously think about what changes are most important and how you can set yourself up to successfully make them.
Wishing you peace, joy, groundedness, and growth in this new year!
