(Revised 12/2020)
On New Year’s Eve 2013, I created this New Year’s intention-setting/meditation exercise. I wrote this meditation because I couldn’t find any I liked online. Part of it requires you to set intentions for the coming year, as well as remember the struggles and triumphs of the past year.
Around October of 2014, I was moving and stumbled upon the intentions I had written on 12/31/12. It’s going to sound a little hokey, but as I read down the list — nearly every intention set had come true. It was pretty astonishing. The things that didn’t come to pass were primarily things that required more effort (believe it or not) on my part. This would be things like working out more regularly, reducing sugar and focusing on music.
The beauty of all of this, was that 2012 had been horrific for me. It’s tied with 2008 for the worst year of my life. Despite all of it, or perhaps because I’d been through the routine before, I held onto optimism because I’ve seen how yin/yang life can be. I could have moaned on about losing my mother, my miscarriage, how my job was taxing me… but I didn’t. I didn’t because I didn’t want to continually put that energy out into the world when I was trying to elicit positive change. Also, people get really tired when you’re constantly emanating a “woe is me” vibe. I realized that such self-loathing behavior can come off as arrogant to many because it assumes that your problems are better than theirs (and many people fight private battles that they never speak of). SO, I focused on positivity.
Anyhow, if you are feeling directionless or need a spiritual boost, try this New Years’ Eve meditation below. Apparently, it works! I hope you have a blessed year and realize that no matter what happened in this one, life is beautiful and a gift. Trust in grace, it’s there.
Also, you can do this on 12/31 or any day before or after in the first week of January. Perfectionism is lame. The key is the process.
Let’s go!
New Year’s Eve Meditation / Journal exercise
1. Light a candle, set a vibe. It could be music that inspires you, incense, pouring your favorite drink (probably non alcoholic because I’m not sure if you’ve ever set a goal while drunk but… I don’t recommend).
2. Get a journal handy.
3. Start out by meditating for just five minutes to get yourself centered and ready to start the process. (If you’re new to meditation, I like the app Insight Timer for guided meditations.)
4. After you’re done meditating, write down 5–10 big struggles that you had this year. If it involves someone else, don’t focus on their aspect. Write down how you handled it, what you learned, what you would do differently and what you commend yourself for.*
*Note: If you have any resentments toward any person or any thing, I strongly encourage you to read this article by Louise Hay and practice a resentment release meditation for two to five minutes. Remember, when you hate someone or some situation it doesn’t affect that person’s health, it affects yours.
5. Next, write down 5–10 big successes you had this past year. If you’re one of those people prone toward beating yourself up and think you don’t have any successes, I would urge you to spend at least 15 minutes finding some. It’s always easy for us to beat ourselves up, but you’ve probably achieved more than you know and you deserve the credit. Need a nudge? Ask one of your most supportive friends or family members what they think were some of your successes this year. At the very least — you survived — so write that down! Hurrah!
6. Next: write down ten intentions for this coming year. Note that I didn’t say resolution. Resolutions are usually unrealistic goals matched by inconsistent behavior with subsequent failure that end up reinforcing some subconscious belief that you’re not good enough. I don’t do resolutions. An intention is a gentle, present-tense stretch goal. Make it realistic. Whatever seems realistic and doable as a stretch goal is the key. (Google “SMART goals” if you want extra help here.)
Ex. I want to meditate 40 minutes a day. Realistically, that’s not going to happen the way I’m going. So, I’ll intend to meditate 10 minutes every day. It might start out as five in the morning and five at night but, it feels doable and it’s a stretch goal!
Write all of your intentions in present tense not future tense i.e. “I am thankful that I will increase my meditation time to 10 minutes a day. I will commit to five in the morning and five at night.”
If it resonates with you, it’s OK to include a few Law of Attraction type intentions in there too. Just keep in mind that in order to manifest what we want in life, we need to correlate our degree of action to our intentions. So, if you want to manifest your “ideal body and health,” you’ll need to also work on harnessing your motivation and discipline because abs don’t grow on trees. (I’ve tried.)
7. Once you’ve written down your ten intentions, if you’re an artsy type, you can draw around them. I’m a writer, so I generally call it a day with pen and paper.
Now take the pages where you wrote about this past year (good and bad), crumble them up and toss them. Thank this year for what it taught you, but now you’re ready to move on. (You can also burn these pages but I’m so clumsy, I just avoid that route.)
Next, meditate for 2–5 minutes on your NYE intentions. Go through each intention and visualize what it would be like to achieve it. How would you feel? Where would you be? What steps would you have taken to get there?
8. Extra credit: Make a commitment to read your intentions daily. I have found that repetition buoys the power of belief plus intentions written down can serve as force multipliers for motivation. Don’t believe me? Read the book: The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton.
Optional: if you’re a vision board person, instead of reading your intentions daily, you can create a vision board that symbolizes them and look at it each morning. This would be the time in the NYE intention ceremony where you would start to work on your new vision board.
To me, a great vision board is one where you cut out pictures that resonate with you and not one where you look for certain images or words. Just grab a few magazines and cut out only pictures that resonate with you. The result should be a board that “feels good.” I find it’s a great way to see what our subconscious is telling us or what we secretly need. You might think you need a new job and yet you cut out a bunch of art pictures because your subconscious is nudging you to be more creative. It’s a journey!
9. Whether you choose to create a vision board or not, we will end this NYE intention setting ceremony by a minute of silence, thanking this year for what it taught us. Then say a prayer for the forthcoming New Year and you’re done!
If you’re at a loss for prayers, google “New Year’s Eve prayer” or whatever, and find one you like. I like this one by Don Miguel Ruiz:
PRAYER FOR SELF-LOVE
By Don Miguel Ruiz, taken from his book “The Mastery of Love”
Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you help us to accept ourselves just the way we are, without judgment. Help us to accept our mind the way it is, with all our emotions, our hopes and dreams, our personality, our unique way of being. Help us to accept our body just the way it is, with all its beauty and perfection. Let the love we have for ourselves be so strong that we never again reject ourselves or sabotage our happiness, freedom, and love.
From now on, let every action, every reaction, every thought, every emotion, be based on love. Help us, Creator, to increase our self-love until the entire dream of our life is transformed, from fear and drama to love and joy. Let the power of our self-love be strong enough to break all the lies we were programmed to believe – all the lies that tell us we are not good enough, or strong enough, or intelligent enough, that we cannot make it. Let the power of our self-love be so strong that we no longer need to live our life according to other people’s opinions. Let us trust ourselves completely to make the choices we must make. With our self-love, we are no longer afraid to face any responsibility in our life or face any problems and resolve them as they arise. Whatever we want to accomplish, let it be done with the power of our self-love.
Starting today, help us to love ourselves so much that we never set up any circumstances that go against us. We can live our life being ourselves and not pretending to be someone else just to be accepted by other people. We no longer need other people to accept us or tell us how good we are because we know what we are. With the power of our self-love, let us enjoy what we see every time we look in the mirror. Let there be a big smile on our face that enhances our inner and outer beauty. Help us to feel such intense self-love that we always enjoy our own presence.
Let us love ourselves without judgment, because when we judge, we carry blame and guilt, we have the need for punishment, and we lose the perspective of our love. Strengthen our will to forgive ourselves in this moment. Clean our minds of emotional poison and self-judgments so we can live in complete peace and love.
Let our self-love be the power that changes the dream of our life. With this new power in our hearts, the power of self-love, let us transform every relationship we have, beginning with the relationship we have with ourselves. Help us to be free of any conflict with others. Let us be happy to share our time with our loved ones and to forgive them for any injustice we feel in our mind. Help us to love ourselves so much that we forgive anyone who has ever hurts us in our life.
Give us the courage to love our family and friends unconditionally, and to change our relationships in the most positive way. Help us to create new channels of communication in our relationships so there is no war of control, there is no winner or loser. Together let us work as a team for love, for joy, for harmony.
Let our relationships with our family and friends be based on respect and joy so we no longer have the need to tell them how to think or how to be. Let our romantic relationship be the most wonderful relationship; let us feel joy every time we share ourselves with our partner. Help us to accept others just the way they are, without judgment, because when we reject them, we reject ourselves. When we reject ourselves, we reject you.
Today is a new beginning. Help us to start our life over beginning today with the power of self-love. Help us to enjoy our life, to enjoy our relationships, to explore life, to take risks, to be alive, and to no longer live in fear of love. Let us open our heart to the love that is our birthright. Help us to be come Masters of Gratitude, Generosity, and Love so that we can enjoy all of your creations forever and ever. Amen.
***
Happy New Year.
