It’s been such a stunning day in Shropshire to mark the end of 2020. I’ve just returned from a lovely walk with the sun warming my back, despite the temperature being 1 or 2 degrees above freezing and the ground still hard from this morning’s frost – a big improvement on the mud that’s marked my walks in recent days.
It’s been a lovely week doing very little – eating, reading, watching movies – and of course walking.
Yet I’ve still felt a little guilty – feeling that I should be doing more, that I should be reflecting on the past year, planning 2021. So when a friend offered to gift me her programme on having your best year yet – I jumped at the offer – feeling very excited that I had a structure to follow – carving out time first thing this morning to go through it.
Unfortunately the battery on my laptop was flat – (which surprised me because I used it on mains yesterday so it should have been fully charged). Not to worry, I’d use my phone – I’d be journaling by hand anyway so didn’t need the laptop.
Then… the audio wouldn’t play on my phone. Again not to worry, somebody else had recommended another resource so I thought I’d do that instead and come back to this one.
I signed up with my email – waited a few minutes for the email with the link to come through – and nothing. 10 minutes later – still nothing.
By this point I was very intrigued – 2 resources I’d tried to access and not been able to.
Time to journal and reflect on what was actually going on here – it felt like something bigger than tech problems.
Through my journaling, I realised that in my head, year end was this big thing. A major time to reflect and welcome in the new. That I needed to go through this big process – review 2020 and set intentions for 2021.
As I wrote it became clear that I’d already set my intentions for 2021:
- My financial goals are set
- 2021 is the year I write my first book – and I know that that will be an incredible journey
- I want to have fun and be in awe of life.
I also realised that I reflect all the time – on an incident that just happened, on my learnings in any day – indeed I’ve been reflecting on this year in real time throughout the whole year.
I realised that through this whole desire to plan and create this big thing, I was being pulled into the ways other people do things – feeling that I was missing something – a very familiar pattern and thankfully one I experience less and less these days.
I also recognised that it was important for me to mark the end of 2020 – and I already knew how to do that – with:
A Sacred Closing Ceremony
I did this recently at the end of my Sacred Selling Programme with a small group of beautiful souls – and it was incredible. I would use the same questions. And that felt powerful.
We often hear – or tell others “we have all the answers within” – and I really felt that today – yet I needed to go through a process of connecting with others to find those answers within.
Tonight, at some point after sunset I will sit down, light a candle, play some soulful music and answer the questions I wrote a few months ago. Then I’ll welcome in the New Year with a lovely meal with my family followed by a short walk at midnight.
If the idea of a Sacred Ceremony to mark the end of 2020 is appealing, these are the questions I’ll be asking:
Sacred Reflections 2020
- My greatest gift this year has been…
- The thing that most surprised me about 2020 was….
- I am grateful for the following insights 2020 gave me:
- I am grateful for the following shifts I experienced during 2020:
- What I loved most about this year:
- What challenged me:
- What I’d have done differently with the benefit of hindsight:
- What I’m looking forward to in 2021 is….
Wishing you a beautiful end to 2020 and a very Happy New Year.
Much love,
Melina
