Cultivating Your Vision

“Dream and you shall become.”

— Wayne Dyer

Assuming that you’ve been following along, last week you thought about what you would categorize as this year’s successes and failures, and what you’ve learned from it all. So now what, you ask? Excellent question! Doing this exercise can leave you with a jumble of thoughts, emotions, and impressions from the past year that can be unsettling and confusing, but that’s obviously not the goal! When you’ve spent the time to reflect on your year, the next step is still not action. Instead, it’s more reflection—this time on what you’d like to be able to experience in the new year.

Following nature’s rhythms, it’s a time of year for harvest (enjoyment and celebration of what you’ve produced this year) and envisioning, at this darkest time of the year, what you will begin to set in motion when the light begins its return on the winter solstice.

• What positive capacities would you like to continue to strengthen in this coming year?

• What do you need to rethink and attempt again in new ways? What will you do before that—research, education, seeking advice and new ideas?

• What might you decide to stop doing? (The answer to this has the potential to move you forward in surprisingly powerful ways!)

• More than anything, what would you like your life to feel like? See if you can cultivate that feeling now, in the relative quiet of the long nights of winter, regardless of your circumstances. Practicing this can help you to become aware of what supports and what tears at this feeling when life starts to pick up again in the spring. Noticing helps you to make better choices about what belongs in your life and what doesn’t.

It’s easy to get caught up in the spin and rush of the holiday madness that’s all around us now, but it’s important to be resting and recharging our batteries, so remember to slow down enough to be really present for the time you may spend with friends and family this month. Modern life is relentless, but we can choose to unhook, unplug, and get off the crazy wheel sometimes, because we all need to take breaks. All the busy-ness is no good if we’re never experiencing any quality of life.

Remember to carve out some time this month for quiet, reflection, appreciation of what you have to celebrate, and healing from what was difficult this year. Look for ways to experience the joy of mid-winter celebrations that societies all over the world have made a tradition. Give yourself time to dream of what you may create in the new year as the old one winds down. Treat yourself with kindness as you come in from the cold to rest for a while before striking out anew.