Happy Solar New Year to YOU!
The Solar Year has begun anew! Solstice 2019…I find myself way more eggar to focus towards new beginnings this year than many – I do, in general, like to honor the dark, lean into resting and deep renewal. I generally feel we rush towards the light as a way to skip over the darker places within us, within life. But this year…ye’ha! we are on our way back towards more light, longer days, a new beginning. Thank the heavens! Thank you nature for giving us another chance.
I love even more that this is the first in a series of new beginnings this time of year. We have the Christian calendar New Year January 1, and we have Chinese New Year January 25, 2020. A month of new beginnings…a month of purging and releasing what is ready to go…and tuning toward what is coming next…inviting, invoking, inducting all that is waiting for you.
The five reflective steps I have been working with are:
TAKING STOCK: I have been reflecting quite a bit on this past year…a difficult and challenging year for many, me included. Getting real honest with myself…what am I sick of, over with, not doing anymore? What can I count on, where are the consistently gentle or good places to lean into?
HONORING WHAT IS WORKING: Because it has been such a challenging year, I’m noticing an old habit of telling my story through the bad news. This is like sticky molasses, so hard to get out of. A simple shift I am working on is noticing What’s Working, telling my story through this lens and spending more time here.
LETTING GO OF WHAT IS DONE: Sometimes we can get stuck in the hard story, the drama of the dirge…woe is me. A simple let go practice during this month of endings and new beginnings will go a long way to clear space for the beautiful new energies coming your way. For example, I love to write things down and burn them as a way of releasing and shifting my focus and energy.
OPENING TO THE NEW STORY: Sometimes there is great clarity of vision, sometimes it is a gentle opening…listening and waiting for what is coming anew. Regardless to how this begins, this very important step in the journey is a deep practice of attending. Listen, feel, sense what feels good in the body, what soothes the mind, what calls for your attention…I love to create an alter space to let this energy grow…placing flowers, candles, items from nature and symbols of the incoming energies. I spend time here, let my imagination open to all that this new story is inviting.
ATTENDING TO THE NEW IN MY DAILY LIFE: This is where devotion and mastery come in…consider your new story as a baby. What does this new energy need to be tended to, to be practiced and brought into every day? The alter work I mentioned above is part of this for me. I also like choosing one action I can take daily to bring the new more fully into form. It is amazing what one action a day creates.
I’m feeling excited for this turning of the year…I am giving myself the full month to let it turn. I am relieved to see 2019 go. I am finding more enthusiasm for what is next…how nice. To really feel the turn, to feel the reminder that so much is possible…that we are moving out of the dark and into the light together.
I send you Solstice blessings. Happy Solar New Year! May you tune in, lean into your own process of taking stock, honoring what is working, letting go of what is done, opening to the new and attending to this in your daily life. I invite you to join me in giving yourself the full season of New Year to do this…one month. I can hardly wait to see what happens next!
Dr. Shannon Simonelli is the co-founder of the NeuroImaginal Institute and the founder and master guide of her signature system Luminous Life Maps. Learn to navigate five landscapes and live more fulfilled, connected and fully alive. Dance, movement, art making, ritual, journey work, group process, myth/stories, and the rhythms of nature are our tools. 3-month groups, quarterly events and sample offerings are available for your support and pleasure. Come join the journey. You might even decide to become a certified guide! You can learn more about upcoming events at luminouslifemaps.com/events
View all posts by Dr. Shannon Simonelli
View all posts by Dr. Shannon Simonelli
