The New Year is always a very powerful time. As we bid farewell to December and welcome in January it’s an opportunity to go deep within ourselves to acknowledge, reflect, restore and focus on creating anew. January see’s so many of us focusing on setting resolutions rather than intentions. Resolutions tend to focus on what we want to change about ourselves or the habits we have created in our lives. We focus on what we feel we aren’t doing so well with and the life choices that cause us to feel uncertain or unworthy. Resolutions are about changing things and when we set them we are often missing the opportunity to focus on empowering our hearts intention to cultivate a life we truly crave. Resolutions mean we are often beginning the year with setting ourselves up to fail.

Intentions differ in the sense they help us align our higher self with the vision of how we would like our future life to feel. They aren’t so focused on self-improvement, but more aligned with enhancing the life we already have. Enabling us to channel our energies with positive intent.

The new year follows the very busy and sometimes overwhelming Christmas holidays. A month of festivities, partying and enjoying quality time with family can be incredibly fun, but in some respects it can also prove exhausting. For many of us early January, the time before the world heads back to work, can gift us with the opportunity to regroup with ourselves both emotionally and spiritually. It’s a time when I actually set a whole day aside to really focus on my spiritual practice. An entire day to truly re-centre myself and re-connect with my true nature.

Allow yourself to reflect on 2019.

The twelves months of 2019 gifted us all with experiences. We would have found some of those experiences empowering, enjoyable and fulfilling. Others would have been challenging, uncomfortable and stressful. Each and every one of these experiences provide us with the opportunity to reflect on what we can be grateful for and what lessons we have gained. Reminding ourselves the situations that caused unrest can actually help highlight where we may feel stuck or help as acknowledge areas we have more work to do on ourselves. Reflection gives us the opportunity to explore what aspects we would like to take from 2019 into 2020 to help enhance and enrich our lives going forward.

I always dedicate my morning meditation practice to this task. I am also deeply honest with myself. I find quiet reflection always helps to encourage myself to view the previous year with a more open-heart.

Begin by asking yourself what are my deepest intentions for the year ahead?

Instead of focusing on what you would like your life to look like, try turning your focus to how you would like your life to feel like. When we align our energies in this way it helps us to connect more deeply with our heart-centred intentions. It encourage us to fully empower the essence which is in fact the source of our deepest power. When we focus our sense of happiness on purely material or personal gains, we are in fact setting intentions driven by our ego’s. Switching our intentions to the positive feelings we enjoy, helps us concentrate on the experiences, friendships, values and relationships that truly feed our soul.

Set your intentions out on a creative a vision board.

The art of creativity helps us live with more presence. Working with our creative nature energetically connects us to our Sacral Chakra, Svahisthana. This Chakra not only governs our creativity but also our emotions. When this energy centre is balanced we are likely to feel more connected to ourselves. This in itself can helps us envisage more clearly what it is that we truly need to experience to ensure we live a life of fulfilment, one in alignment with our values and desires. Vision boards can be crafted using images, mantra’s, quotes or words that truly resonate with us. When we spend time doing this it re-enforces what it is we wish to manifest into our lives and where we wish to see ourselves in the future. Allow yourself a quiet and uninterrupted space to complete this process, and really take your time.

Once it’s completed place your vision board somewhere that you will see it daily. Viewing it regularly reminds us of the intentions we have set, and assists us in focusing our energy towards the life we have chosen to illustrate.

Partake in your own Space Clearing Ritual.

Every ancient or Native culture has a tradition of space clearing. A ritual to shift, change, uplift or alter energy of places or spaces. Sacred ceremonies have been performed for centuries to instil beneficial energies into living spaces. I regularly perform space clearing rituals in both my home and my business. Years of studying energy as a healer has gifted me with the belief that it’s important to honour the energies that surround us in our daily lives and the power gained from inviting the natural world into our homes. I find partaking in this type of ritual, helps me focus my intentions more clearly. Remember positive energy, creates positive focus.

Space clearing can be done at any time, but I believe there are particular moments when it’s especially important to clear and bless your environment. New Year being one of them. Space clearing at this time helps to dispel listless energy that may be present from the year we are bidding farewell to, and opens up space for renewed and vibrant energy from the year ahead.

All Space Clearing has its roots in shamanism and its basis in a deep attunement to the natural cycles of nature. It’s very important to ensure you prepare your own energies through meditation, or by spending time in stillness in nature prior to cleansing your home or office. Clarify your intention of what your want the space clearing ceremony to accomplish. You can use drumming, chanting, prayer, Tingshaw bells, essential oils, candles, smudge sticks or incense as tools to incorporate into your Space Clearing ceremony. Remember to give thanks to the ancestors of the scared ritual of space clearing and to the energies of the plants or oils you may have used to perform your task.

Ask for guidance using divination tools of your choice.

Every New Year I take time to use my medicine cards to perform a twelve month medicine wheel card spread to help guide me through the up and coming year ahead. Similar to a Space Clearing ceremony, I find this needs to be done with heart centred intention, when I am balanced and focused on the task. I always, always meditate immediately prior to sitting down with my cards. I set my intention in my meditation, asking for spiritual guidance for each of the months ahead to help me navigate the year with compassionate awareness, and in a way that will be for the highest good of not only myself but for everyone else I am due to encounter throughout that year. Your card reading will be more accurate if you are grounded, centred and focused. Consciously clear your mind of what you hope the reading will reveal to you, and instead be open to receive guidance on whatever it is you’re here to learn during the next twelve months.

I then smudge (a form of Space Clearing) my meditation room, myself and my cards to ensure the energies are clear prior to laying out the spread. Once the cards are laid out, I will write the meaning of each card and it’s guidance in my yearly planner for each of the corresponding months. I also pull one card at the end of the reading as a summary card of what I am due to learn overall for the year.

You may find it helpful to take a picture of whatever spread you have used and re-visit the photograph throughout the year. I have always found this task incredibly helpful in setting my intentions at the start of a New Year, but it also helps me navigate my way through each month as they arrive.

A New Year gifts us with the possibility of growth, change and renewal. If we remain open to this invitation with curiosity, courage and open-heartedness, we can place ourselves perfectly to receive clear and concise guidance from both our higher-self and the universe.