New YearCompass Meditation - Part 1

This is Part 1 of a YearCompass meditation.

This meditation is designed to support you as you reflect on your past year. You can use it before filling out the YearCompass or listen along as you work through the pages. Gentle breathing and nervous system regulation techniques help you arrive in a grounded, receptive state. Thank you to the amazing YearCompass team for offering such a powerful self-reflection tool free of charge.

Join me for Part 2 in a separate track, where we prepare for the new year ahead.

Transcript

Welcome to this year compass meditation.

My name is Suzanne and I wanted to design a meditation that can accompany the year compass.

So what is the year compass?

It's a tool that is that's designed by a team in Budapest Hungary every year and it's a set of questions essentially in two parts.

One part helps you reflect on your past year and the second part helps you plan for the next one.

And I have found this tool really helpful in the past years and I wanted to offer a meditation inspired by this tool.

A meditation that can be done at the same time as filling out the booklet or a sort of preparatory meditation something you can do to ground yourself before you begin.

So you're going to need if you are doing the year comps at the same time you'll need it in front of you either digitally or in paper form.

So then you might need a pen or a pencil.

You'll need some time so this is going to be a shorter meditation but you can always just do this in one go and then fill out the booklet or you can play this and pause it as you need to while you're filling out the booklet.

But you will need some time so make sure your family and friends know you are not to be disturbed.

At some point you will need a look into your calendar so whether you have that on your phone or in physical form or on your laptop feel free to have that nearby but still try and put your focus for the most part on the year compass.

And here I'm looking at the introduction and the book they also say you will need an open and honest mind and I encourage you to approach this was an open honest mind with no expectations,

With a sense of curiosity,

Yeah with an openness to see what comes up no matter how unusual or how unexpected the question.

So let's get started.

Once you have everything around you that you need just take a moment to arrive wherever you are.

So feel where your body physically is in space.

Feel the surface underneath you whether that be a couch,

A chair,

Or the floor.

Feel the texture of the surface underneath you,

The fabric,

The softness.

See if you can feel supported by whatever you're sitting on.

Get really specific.

Feel the exact spots where your body is in contact with something else.

Feel the warmth of your body.

Feel your clothing on your skin.

Also here feeling the texture,

The softness,

Any tightness in your clothing.

Feel the parts of your body that are not covered by clothing.

Maybe you feel the temperature of the air in the room,

Coolness,

Movement.

And then without changing anything just notice how you're breathing.

Sometimes you can feel this through your clothing.

You feel your clothing shifting as your body expands and then deflates.

Just observing the breath as it enters and leaves your body.

And now we'll start to do a little bit of intentional breathing.

So we're actually going to start by opening the mouth and just exhaling out any air that happens to be in your body.

Go ahead and exhale until you're completely empty and then take a big inhale through your nose.

Feel how the air flows in.

When you're completely full open the mouth and exhale.

And try four more like that on your own.

As you inhale your belly expands completely.

As you exhale let the air slide out of your body with no muscular effort.

Three more.

Inhaling.

When you feel ready exhale.

Two more.

Inhale completely.

Exhale completely.

Don't be afraid to be loud about your exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

Let's put one hand on the heart,

One hand on the belly and feel the rise and fall of your breath.

Feel the totality of your body and your breath within that body.

You can close your eyes if it feels right.

Let go of any expectations.

See if you can open your mind honestly to what comes up in this year compass.

Whenever you're ready we're going to go ahead and get started.

So we're going to start by looking at the past year and this actually involves going through your calendar.

So grab your calendar and you're going to go through every week.

And anytime you see an important event,

A family gathering,

A date,

A party,

A project at work,

You're going to write it down on this page.

If you're following along with me it's page four.

Or maybe you're doing this freeform or just in your mind looking back kind of mentally flipping through and remembering any important things.

So we're going to continue with the next question.

If you feel that you need more time with your calendar feel free to take it.

Feel free to just pause this and return whenever you're ready.

The next section is about looking at the different areas of your life because we live our lives through distinct but interconnected aspects of our lives.

So I'm going to name a few sections,

Eight sections total,

And if you're writing with me you'll see the different sections,

Areas are laid out.

If you're doing this mentally in your mind with me then I'm going to say the area and there'll be a little bit of a pause so you can see what comes to front of mind and then we'll move on to the next section.

So the question is what were the significant events in each of these areas?

First area,

Personal life and family.

What were the significant events for you this year in your personal life,

In your family life?

What were the significant events in your personal life or in your family life?

What were the significant events in your career,

In your studies?

What were the significant events in your career or if you were studying in your studies?

The next area is friends and community.

What were the significant events amongst your friends,

In your friend circle or in your community?

Significant events that played out in your community.

This next area is a few different things all wrapped up together.

Relaxation,

Hobbies,

Creativity.

Relaxation,

Hobbies,

Creativity.

What were significant events that played out in this area?

This area of relaxation,

Of rest,

Of hobbies,

Of interests,

Of creativity,

Of your personal self expression.

Significant events in this area of relaxation,

Hobbies,

Creativity.

The next area we have is physical health and fitness.

Significant events in the area of physical health and fitness.

The next area is mental health,

Self knowledge.

These are in one area together,

Mental health,

Self knowledge.

What were significant events in this area of mental health?

What were significant events in this area of self-knowledge,

Of knowing yourself?

The next area is habits that define you.

What were any significant events in this area of habits that define you?

We're at our last area for this page and this area is called a better tomorrow.

And the Your Compass team has put a little asterisk here after a better tomorrow.

What did you do this year to leave the world in better shape than you found it?

So in this area of a better tomorrow,

You can ask yourself,

What did I do this year to leave the world in a better shape than I found it?

What did I do to work towards a better tomorrow?

And now we've taken a look at these eight areas of our lives,

Personal life,

Family,

Career,

Studies,

Friends,

Community,

Relaxation,

Hobbies,

Creativity,

Physical health,

Fitness,

Mental health,

Self-knowledge,

Habits that define you and a better tomorrow.

Take a look at the page.

Take a look mentally,

Sort of skim over what popped up for you.

And of course,

There are some things that will pop up in two areas because our lives are interconnected systems.

But notice how things have arranged themselves into these eight areas.

Now we'll move on to the next page,

Page six.

This page is called six sentences about my past year.

So if you're writing,

You can finish the sentence.

But try not to overthink it.

Try to just go spontaneously with what pops into your head.

If you are mentally with me not writing just yet,

Then even better.

Just see what pops into your head.

So here we go.

Six sentences.

The first one,

The wisest decision I made.

The wisest decision I made.

Second sentence,

The biggest lesson I learned.

The biggest lesson I learned this year.

The biggest risk I took.

The biggest risk I took this year.

The biggest surprise of the year.

The biggest surprise of the year this year.

The most important thing I did for others.

The most important thing I did for others this year.

The biggest thing I completed.

The biggest thing I completed this year.

And those were our six sentences.

We move on to six questions about this past year.

First question,

What are you the most proud of?

What are you the most proud of this year?

Who are the three people who influenced you the most?

Who are the three people who influenced you the most this year?

And now,

Who are the three people you influenced the most?

Who are the three people you influenced the most this year?

What were you not able to accomplish?

This year?

Was there something that you were not able to accomplish?

What is the best thing you have discovered about yourself this year?

This year?

What is the best thing you have discovered about yourself?

And finally,

What are you the most grateful for?

What are you the most grateful for this year?

And those were our six questions about this year.

We move on to page eight,

Which is called,

Beautifully,

The best moments.

And if you are writing,

You can go ahead and write the greatest and most memorable,

Joyful moments from last year.

And you can actually draw them even on the sheet.

You can write,

You can draw however is most comfortable for you to express yourself.

Because it's true that sometimes words do not do justice.

And sometimes you need a picture.

If you are with me mentally,

You're not writing,

Then just visualize these moments really try and get really specific about visually how that moment was.

Try and remember how you felt in that moment.

Who was there in that moment with you?

What were you doing?

What kind of smells,

Sounds or tastes do you remember?

Try and really dive back into those joyful moments from the past year and recreate them in your mind.

Write them down as specifically as you can.

Draw them.

Fill up the whole page with these best moments of the year.

We're going to take a little mini break here.

Because we've already answered quite a few questions,

And done quite a bit of reflecting.

And sometimes this can bring up some difficult thoughts or feelings.

Or you might feel you are riding the roller coaster of emotions from the past year.

So if you ever need to,

In the future while doing this,

Your compass,

Then just do the following.

Bring one hand to your chest,

To your heart,

One hand to your belly,

And ground yourself.

Literally feel the ground on which you find yourself,

The surface on which you are resting.

Feel the rise and fall of your breath.

If you notice the hand on your heart moving more than the one on your belly,

And if you feel safe,

Then redirect your breath to go deeper down into your belly.

Encouraging the nervous system to go into a state of rest,

Of reflection.

Feel your breath come in and out of your body.

Notice the thoughts that are buzzing around.

And just turn your attention to your body and your breath.

So you are always welcome to do that at any moment you need to during this exercise.

We are taking the time to gain insight into our year.

And we are approaching this with an open and honest mind.

You can feel really proud of yourself for taking the time to do this.

So we should have now a page eight or a mind full of beautiful moments from this year.

Maybe little drawings.

Maybe names of people that were there with you in those moments.

The smells,

The sounds,

An abundance of moments that brought us joy this year.

And we move to page nine.

And we're gonna focus on our accomplishments.

So three of your biggest accomplishments.

What were the three greatest accomplishments from this year?

The three greatest accomplishments from this year?

What have you done to achieve these greatest accomplishments?

What have you done this year to achieve these three greatest accomplishments?

Who helped you achieve these successes?

And how?

So when you think back on your three greatest accomplishments this year,

Who helped you achieve those accomplishments?

And how did they help you?

Three of my biggest challenges is next,

Of course,

Where there are accomplishments,

There are challenges.

So what are your three biggest challenges from this year?

List your three biggest challenges from this past year.

Who or what helped you overcome these challenges?

So you have your three biggest challenges in the past year.

And think,

Who helped me overcome these challenges?

Or what helped me overcome these challenges?

And lastly,

What have you learned about yourself while overcoming these challenges?

So you had your three biggest challenges of this past year.

And what did you learn about yourself while overcoming those challenges?

The next page,

Page 10,

Is called forgiveness.

Did anything happen during this past year that still needs to be forgiven?

Maybe actions or words that made you feel bad,

Or less than.

Could be that you are angry or frustrated with yourself.

So if anything like this comes to mind,

Write it down.

If you're with me mentally,

Let it come up into your consciousness,

Into your attention.

And then we can inhale.

Imagining we're kind of drawing this mind,

This object,

This action up into our consciousness.

Hold your breath until you feel the urge to exhale.

It might take a while.

As you hold your breath,

Feel that kind of tension building up.

And whenever you feel ready,

Open your mouth and exhale and let it go.

You might need to do this a few more times.

Go ahead and inhale,

Like you're sucking up anything that came to mind in this theme of forgiveness.

Hold until you feel the urge to let it go.

And exhale,

Let it go.

Let your body soften.

Sometimes it might be that you're not 100% ready to forgive yet.

But it can still really work wonders to write down something that needs to be forgiven,

Or to imagine something needs to be forgiven.

And that little breathing exercise can help somatically encourage the active forgiveness of letting go.

The next page,

Page 11,

Continues in this spirit,

Letting go.

So is there anything else you need to say?

Is there anything else you want to review in your mind or write down when you think of this year?

Anything else that you want to acknowledge?

Is there anything you want to let go of before you can start your next year?

Is there anything not serving you anymore that you want to let go of?

And again,

You can write,

You can draw,

You can fill the page,

Let your mind be populated with anything that comes up for you still that we didn't cover yet.

This is just a chance to kind of do the end of year cleanup.

And again,

We're going to inhale deeply.

Holding,

Visualizing,

Letting the tension increase until you feel a natural urge to exhale.

And now when you get to the end of your exhale,

You're going to hold empty.

Hold in that completely empty state.

Until you feel the urge to inhale.

Go ahead and inhale normally.

Open the mouth and exhale normally.

So we have let it all go.

And now we can sum up the year in three words.

So if you had to choose three words to define your year,

What would they be?

Three words?

And give yourself permission to get creative.

It could be adjectives,

It could be nouns.

It could be places.

Three words that define your past year.

This next question is a fun one.

It's called the book of my past year.

So imagine someone were to make a book or a movie or a TV show about your past year.

What title would you give it?

So if there were to be a book or a movie,

Or a series about your year,

What title would it have?

And we are on our last last prompt for reviewing this past year.

And it's time to say farewell to this year.

So if there's anything else that you'd like to write down,

Or draw,

Or anything else you'd like to mentally acknowledge,

Anybody you'd like to say goodbye to,

Anything you'd like to leave behind,

Go ahead and do it now.

Maybe you feel good.

Maybe you feel like you've covered everything.

You just want to take a moment in stillness.

All right,

So you are done with the past year.

You finished the first part.

Let's take a few deep breaths.

Inhale through your nose.

Open the mouth and exhale,

Sigh it out.

Two more like that.

Inhale deeply.

As you exhale,

Relax your shoulders,

Relax your face,

Relax your jaw.

Last one,

Inhale.

And exhale,

Soften,

Release.

Beautiful work.

Get some rest,

Maybe drink a glass of water,

Some tea.

Whenever you feel ready,

Meet me back here for part two to look at the next year.