Seasons Greetings, Peace, and Joy!

I wish you the Happiest of Holiday everything ~ Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Year, and so forth.

 
Below, I share the reflection questions that I share with my clients and write on myself every New Year. I love the cyclic revisiting of our life journey, honoring what has transpired in the previous year, and pre-paving what we desire to let go of and create in the one to come.

 
These questions are powerful tools for developing yourself as a person, achieving your dreams, and making peace with ourselves when we don’t. But before we dive into them, I’d like to set the stage. Let’s look at why this time of year is particularly ripe for the self-reflection these questions bring.

Winter Solstice – The Longest Night of the Year and What That Means

This time of year is so rich with deep, psychic activity. There’s a reason we have so many holidays in December and early January. As a way of summing it up, we could look to the Winter Solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere the longest night of the year, as a time to celebrate rebirth, renewal, and the return of the sun.

 
Symbolically, this time of year speaks to the themes of light and dark, their co-dependence, and the awakenings they each bring. We’re also affected on a physical/emotional level. If the cycles of the moon have such a profound effect on the flow of the tides, imagine how much they affect our 70% water bodies. I don’t currently know much about astrology, but I do know that the movement of the cosmos energetically affects us in very real ways.

 
So we’re moving from a time of darkness, introspection, and hibernation towards the new life of spring. From the winter solstice on, the days will be getting longer and brighter. When we move in attunement with the seasons of the years, we’re celebrating the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

 
Wherever you are in the midst of your life cycles, remember that for everything there is a season, and all things come, go, and are reborn.

Prepping Ourselves To Dive Deep Into Our Psyches

These questions put us in touch with our Soul Essence. They help us to let our souls sing through us more and more vibrantly.

I invite you to really spend some quality time with these questions, and make them a yearly ritual. Light a candle, put on some soft music, and prioritize your self-reflection. (Like self-care, self-reflection is non-negotiable for those of us who wish to continue growing and thriving).

When Things Don’t Go As Planned

You know how weird and unexpected life can get. There are times when we lay out the best of plans and intentions and end up… somewhere else entirely, groping our way through a dark, winding labyrinth. Those times can try our souls. And they can also call us to grow in ways far greater and more essential than if we had gotten what we thought we wanted. It’s how we respond that makes all the difference. We need a road map of who and what we are (I mean deep down in our SOULS), plus the tools to handle even the unexpected.

Questions like these help us create that road map and develop those tools so we know the territory and show up prepared. Additionally, when we consider what blew us off course, and learn our lessons from those difficult life experiences, we turn our lives into fertile soil rather than bitter ground. This makes all the difference.

And Now We Begin

I encourage you to take time to hand-write your answers to the questions below. If you’ve kept your reflections from the last year or two, it would be useful to compare and ponder them. And finally, let yourself really dream and feel into the possibilities of what you’d love to create this year. Don’t hold back. This is your chance to let your voice speak through you, and dream onto paper and into physical reality.

1. What did I create last year?
2. What am I most proud of?
3. What touched or changed me the most?
4. What was the most fun? The most powerful? The most sacred?
5. What were my major breakthroughs?
8. What obstacles did I overcome?
9. What were my disappointments? Mistakes?
10. What lessons did I learn?
11. What would I most like to create in the coming year?
12. How do I imagine my ideal life in 20 years? 10 years? 5 years? 1 year? Really give yourself permission to dream onto paper.

Learning from the past, intending for the future, and resting in the present is the most powerful way I know of connecting with your true voice.

If this process brings you any insights you’d like to share with us, please do!

Here’s to an amazing Year and Years to come!

With Love & Om On,

Kimberly

P.S. To get you in the meditative mood, here are a couple of live performances my partner Marvin and I have done during the holiday season. Marvin on harp, yours truly on vocals.