Welcome to this new year's reflection.
Take a moment to arrive here fully,
Finding a seat in a space that feels supportive and where you can let yourself rest just for a little while.
Notice your head balancing gently over your heart and your heart softly settling over your hips.
Feel this alignment,
The support beneath you.
And then take a deep breath in and exhale slowly.
Let this be a welcome that feels a little out of the ordinary,
A moment made just for you.
The end of the year can be heavy,
Emotional,
Full of reflection.
So let this be a pause,
A breath of recognition and kindness to yourself for all that you've lived through.
As you allow your body to sink into the support beneath you,
Let your hands rest gently on your legs or in your lap.
Feel the weight of your body,
The points of contact,
The rhythm of your breath.
Let this be your space to land.
Now gently allow your mind to scan the year behind you.
Imagine it unfolding like a vivid movie,
Full of texture and color.
Notice the highlights,
The moments that brought joy,
Laughter,
Awe and picture them as titles of scenes in your personal film,
Glowing on the screen of your mind.
Then scan for challenges,
Obstacles,
Moments of struggle and notice them without judging them.
Perhaps you see a color for each emotion,
A texture or a sound,
The taste of an unexpected success,
The smell of rain on a challenging day or a song that carried a memory.
Notice the people that mattered,
The spaces you moved through,
The lessons you've learned.
Look at patterns of growth,
Areas where friction showed up again and again.
What moments do you feel ready to leave behind and what threats do you wish to carry forward?
Visualize these,
Feel them,
Let the letting go be a release,
Exhaling the audio,
Tension,
Unfinished stories or lingering heaviness and as you exhale feel a space opening,
A readiness for what comes next.
Now gently bring your awareness forward to the year ahead.
Imagine yourself one year from now at the end of this next chapter.
Who do you want to be?
Who do you want to be if not as an abstract idea but a tangible experience?
See your environment,
The spaces you inhabit,
The light,
The sounds,
The smells.
Feel your body,
Your posture,
The energy that you carry and then notice your habits,
Your rhythms,
Your daily rituals.
What qualities shine in this future self?
Maybe you can name it with a picture,
A word,
Clarity,
Energy,
Presence,
Focus.
Maybe it's a mantra,
A phrase,
A shape.
See these qualities alive,
Embodied and feel the alignment between your actions and your intentions and imagine this self moving through days with ease and making choices that feel purposeful,
Breathing in each moment fully.
Let this image grow vibrant and real and allow yourself to connect with the feeling of being this person.
The groundedness or the satisfaction,
Maybe the confidence or the glow.
Now gently shift your attention to the present you.
What tiny action,
Just one small step.
Could you take every day to move towards this future self?
Just one tiny action.
Maybe it's a movement practice,
A creative pursuit,
Maybe it's journaling.
Imagine yourself doing it,
The ease with which you incorporate it,
The small shifts that accumulate over time,
Slowly making you become that person that you see.
Visualize this action clearly,
Feel it in your body as you do it.
Imagine the ripple it creates connecting present choices with your future self and allow it to feel achievable,
To feel tangible and to feel very much alive.
Now internalize this vision,
This tiny action and the feeling it brings.
Place a hand on your heart if you'd like to and take a deep breath in and fully out.
And make an oath to yourself silently or loud and repeat,
I commit to this small intentional step and I honor the future self that I am becoming.
Feel the energy of this commitment grounding in your chest,
Your hands,
Your feet.
And sense the continuity between who you are now and who you are moving toward.
And then slowly bring your awareness back to the room,
To the points of contact with your seat or floor.
Notice the breath moving in and out as you slowly begin to deepen it.
Bring this clarity,
This alignment and this feeling of purpose with you into the new year and know that every small and consistent action builds your future self.
You can slowly begin to introduce tiny movements into your body.
Maybe wiggling your fingers and toes or stretching.
And then take one more deep inhale and as you exhale blink your eyes open.
Look around you in this new year or just before.
And may this year be left intentionally with presence,
Clarity and care for the self that you are becoming.
