Today begins the process of self-reflection and self-inventory. Be willing to dive deep, take one for the team and admit to yourself both your failures and your successes! A. First things first, CELEBRATE your successes! Take some time to look back on 2013 and all of wonderful things you did do for yourself. Reflect back on your accomplishments, sacred moments shared, gratitudes and breakthroughs. What goals did you set and see through until the end? Write down all of things you successfully completed, enriching experiences, and the beautiful and inspiring moments you shared. Write down where you showed up and shined brightly and were able to positively impact other people's lives. Write down where you showed up for yourself, set healthy boundaries, practiced radical self-care and took care of you (p.s. this step is HUGE HUGE HUGE!). Allow yourself to be celebrated! We often bypass this important step in our lives and jump over the fact that we have just accomplishment something major (even when it seems like a small step). Remember to stop and celebrate your successes, no matter how insignificant they may seem. Honor your achievements as you write them down during this reflection process (maybe even do a happy dance!). When you feel complete take a moment to breathe in all that you have done… Fill your heart with gratitude and really honor each and every success… Bathe in your successes... B. The next step (which is not always very easy!) is to rise up and fly on the wings of an eagle, soaring above your year to see where you may have fallen short, held yourself back, hurt or been hurt, are holding grievances or felt disappointment and failure. The reason I suggest to "rise up and fly on the wings of an eagle" is to be able to look at the past without getting emotionally hooked in and too much back into the story, sort of like watching your life go by on a movie screen. If you find yourself getting hooked in emotionally, simply take a moment, place your hand over heart and breathe deeply into your heart center. Allow love and gratitude to fill your heart for this cleansing experience as you return back to becoming the observer with a healthy dose of detachment. As an impartial observer of our life we can identify, release and transform any toxicity from our past (and sometimes it can be very healing to go deep into the emotion; especially if you haven't gone through a grieving process!). Practicing radical honesty is a sobering and transformative experience within itself! Write down everything you want to RELEASE - all of the goals you set out to achieve and didn't, the ways in which you judged yourself or others, things that didn't work out as planned or the times you didn't show up for life in a healthy, loving way. Remember, this process is meant to bring awareness to the areas of your life where you might be stuck or where limiting beliefs might be lurking in your unconscious negatively impacting your life (pay close attention to patterns!). This process is also meant to shine the light of forgiveness onto situations which may require healing and completion before you are able to move forward in a healthy, balanced way. Once you feel complete, take a moment to reconnect back to your heart center. Allow love and gratitude to fill your heart as you thank yourself for this process. You are giving yourself a gift that brings with it countless blessings…trust the process. C. The final step in this part of the process is to translate both your successes and your failures into insight, wisdom and inspiration for your future. Reflecting on your year, what lessons have you learned? What insight would you like to bring with you to help you move forward a little smarter and a little wiser this year? Which experiences gave you valuable insight into your life? Take the lessons with you. Highlight them. Appreciate them and use them for fuel to help ignite the path of your future. Ask your Inner Wisdom to guide you in this process. Write down what nuggets of wisdom you would like to take with you… What is your inner wisdom telling you about this process? What is your inner wisdom offering you? Highlight the healthy habits you have formed, relationships that support and nurture you, the ways in which you are setting out to take care of yourself and carve out the path to your destiny. Also write down any programs, coaching and mentoring that can radically support you on your path. Once you have captured the wisdom you would like to take with you, take a moment to connect back to your heart and allow this insight to fill every cell in your body… Imagine living your life now from this place of greater understanding, awareness and appreciation of all of life's lessons. Imagine breaking the cycle of habitual experiences by learning the lesson and embodying the teaching. Imagine your life radically transforming as you evolve on this path of self-discovery and step into the life you truly deserve and desire… Take the next few days to complete this step, I know it's Christmas and I'm sure you are busy with family, cooking, eating and celebrating, so simply give yourself permission to carve out some time before, after or in between. Really spend time with this; be thorough and dive deep. The more stuff you bring up and write down, the less toxic baggage you will be taking with you into the New Year and the more open you will be to stepping into an empowered, beautiful life. At the end of these steps you will have three separate pieces of paper with your celebrations, what you are ready to release and what inner wisdom you are taking with you. Fold them up and keep them in a safe space until we take the next step together! As always, please feel free to share your experience of this process, keep the conversation going and inspire others to do the same! I would personally love to hear from you! Blessings and Love, Heather |