Traditionally, the beginning of a new year is a time that many of us commit to setting intentions and beginning new habits. I myself have always gotten excited for the energy of new beginnings. I’ve created vision boards and manifestation journals, writing pages and pages of everything that I want to manifest in pretty sparkly gel pens, complete with fancy washi tape lining the edges of each page.
What I have noticed, however, is that the majority of time my intentions tend to remain in the journal or on the vision board stuffed into the corner of my closet, forgotten until the end of the year when I again go through the same process, preparing my intentions for the new year. The frustrating part has been reviewing what I wrote down and seeing how much didn’t come to fruition in the way that I was hoping. For example, 2022 is ending and I haven’t yet manifested my life partner, I’m not the next Deepak Chopra with my Amazon best seller book hot off the presses, nor am I working three-day weeks while making six figures after one year of starting my soul-aligned business.
When we create intentions for the new year and they don’t come to pass, we can get discouraged, frustrated and sometimes loose hope that something greater is waiting just around the corner. I began 2022 thinking it was going to be the best thing since sliced bread, ready for love, expansion, growth and travel. I got all of that, but not the way that I was anticipating. Instead of experiencing love through partnership, I healed my relationship with myself, learning how to honor my needs, speak my truth and give my soul the unconditional love that it deserves. Expansion and growth came through managing a two-month lockdown and ending a chapter of my life in China. Travel also happened, but not the luxurious kind that I was expecting of fancy hotel stays in Asia. It manifested as a 24-hour trip back home to the US, flying economy class in the back of the plane with my two Chinese rescue cats and five suitcases of cherished clothing, intuitive cards and crystals.
As I now prepare for 2023 and reflect on my hopes, wishes and dreams, a few learnings have unfolded about creating intentions for the new year that I wish to share with you now.
The first learning: release expectations. While manifestation does indeed happen when we are clear and focused with our intentions, we also don’t always have control over the time line. Our soul brings us what we need when we need it, which may not always align with what we think we want in the given moment. My ego wanted 2022 to be a year of travel, yet what my soul actually needed was introspective time to go within, shed limiting beliefs and patterns and heal trauma. This was part of my dharma: the prolonged introspective time with myself this year was necessary to face fear, pain, grief and endings, the very areas that I’ve spent my lifetime trying to avoid. These experiences helped me to grow, evolve and find the light deep within my shadow that I could then integrate and share through service to others.
My second learning: embody intentions as a daily practice rather than as a ritual done once a year. Our souls are constantly growing, evolving and changing. As we move forward, our desires and needs naturally shift and expand. I realized that creating a list of yearly intentions no longer resonated because intention setting has already become a part of my routine, an act of conscious living. Each morning I meditate, draw intuitive cards, ask about the energy of the day, look at the planets influencing my astrological chart and then allow myself to create and flow with the energy of that moment. In astrology, aligning with the moon cycle means that each month there is an optimal window of time for setting intentions and gaining clarity in your next steps forward. This allows you to be in greater sync with the vibration of the universe and moving with the tides of change, providing a constant space for introspection that leads to deeper understandings and more profound transformations.
My final learning: lean into your aligned vision and deeper soul needs instead of creating a to-do list of your goals. When I took some time to connect with the wisdom of my soul, to ask what it truly yearned for rather than just listing the things that my ego wanted to accomplish, the process was very different. I stopped focusing on where I thought I should be in my life, on what society and external forces had deemed appropriate. Instead, I allowed my intuition to guide me towards what I needed to learn in that moment. Connecting and listening to my inner voice helped me to anchor in a clearer understanding of the chapter in my life that was ending and to create a vision of where I was going. From there, I could then decide upon the next step of aligned action in order to bring that vision into the 3d reality.
As we move into 2023, I encourage you to tune into your soul’s innate wisdom as you create your intentions. Perhaps you are guided to focus on your bigger vision, or maybe just to tune into what feels aligned right now. Reflect on how you have grown, on what hasn’t yet come to fruition and why, feeling into where you need to direct your energies for the coming month rather than trying to map out an entire year. What truly matters to you? Connect with your soul, write down your insights, create a few simple action steps and then release control, trusting that the universe will bring you exactly what you need. By allowing our life to be a conscious flow of energy, leaning into the moments of joy, the learnings and acknowledging our soul’s constant evolution, we can honor and welcome in new beginnings each day of the year.
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