It’s been a ritual the past few years since starting this blog to pick a few words as my intention for the new year and then share in a blog post. So here goes for 2024 …
1) Presence: To me presence means being mindful. It means being here now in this moment. Not off in my head somewhere in the past or future. Here. Just here. Maybe that means I’m engaged in a conversation and wholeheartedly tuning into the other person and listening empathetically. Maybe it’s as simple as engaging all my senses (smell, feel, sight, sound, taste) in an ordinary moment like making my morning cup of coffee. Presence means I’m in tune with my body, mind and emotions, with the energy I’m taking in from the world and the energy I’m giving out. It means I’m consciously flowing through the world with mindful ease rather than unconsciously acting and reacting lost in the world of mind chatter. From presence, everything else can flow.
2) Magic: Since I’ve been a kid, I’ve loved the idea of magic. I grew up on the Redwall series, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and others, eagerly jumping into new worlds. When would I get my Hogwarts letter? When I was young, I played outside and saw fairies and magical creatures in the grass and trees and streams. Maybe I never grew up, but I still love magic and … full confession … young adult fantasy books are my favorite genre. More recently, I’ve expanded my definition of magic to include the divine as well as the wonder and wizardry in the so-called ordinary. After all, just in the human body we are made up of trillions of cells all magically doing numerous tasks at once! How amazing that I’m able to feel these emotions and then translate them into ideas and words and sentences and write them down and share on a blog – if that’s not magic then I don’t know what is!
3) Fill in the blank: an evolving intention for what I need in this month or week or day or moment. While I enjoy having a key word or two to guide me for the year, I also appreciate that intentions can be fluid and adaptable to whatever best supports me in any given moment, be that a day, week, or month or whatever time period feels right. Therefore, I am visualizing my 2024 intentions as a triangle with presence and magic on the bottom two corners and then a fill in the blank intention at the top. This reminds me to check in often and ask myself what intentions do I want to focus on right now? For instance, yesterday I had an inspiring therapeutic massage and am committing to focusing on better postural awareness. This fill in the blank intention(s) means I could have several intentions pop up that inspire me and that I want to dedicate energy towards.
What are your intentions for the new year? Do you have any rituals around new year’s intention setting?