Wholeness Healing Center

Out with the Old-In with the New!

Out with the old; in with the new! New Year’s Day marks that time. It accentuates time. Time to reflect on the past gone by and time to look towards the future with thought and vision. New Year’s Day gives us a fresh new start: a brand new shiny year, bringing with it much anticipated hope of all it can be. I use this time to reflect and spend some time with myself. I like to greet in the New Year after I have spent some time releasing the old. After I have done this, I can embrace the New Year with a blank slate, allowing openness for the potential that lies ahead.

December 31, 2010 is the perfect day to spend time in ritual, putting closure on the old year as we prepare for new vision for 2011. For me, this is done out of respect to me and the time spent in 2010. It becomes a time of reflection and acknowledgement of my journey through the year. It is a spiritual acknowledgement of gratitude, maybe just for making it to the New Year. So I light my favorite candle, curl up in my sacred space with a hot cup of tea and begin the process with journal in hand. I focus on what I have learned through the year, how I have grown, what I could have done better, and what emotional, physical and spiritual muscles I have strengthened as a result of the year’s experiences. Sometimes so much has happened that it isn’t until I sit down and review that I really realize what I have gone through in the year. Sometimes I have really made some great strides and finally am just sitting down to really acknowledge it. I may contemplate the patterns in my life that keep me stuck or write down limiting beliefs or habits I need to leave behind with the old year. I may have suffered great loss and am limping to the start of the New Year. But I did arrive. It is important to appreciate how I tended to my journey and what I learned or didn’t learn from it. It allows me to be accountable to myself, to my growth and to give myself a pat on the back. I want to do better than I did last year, even if it is only a baby step.

And after acknowledging the year and all the positive and not so positive moments, it is time to release it. Releasing the old is a bit like cleaning out my closet and choosing to get rid of a favorite shirt that is tattered and outdated. It may be comfortable, but still it needs to go as it is time for the new. It’s a decision to let it go. It may be the year to move on to a new style, one that fits the spirit of right now. If it were a hard year, a ritual of release by writing down the difficulties and ceremoniously burning the paper – watching it turn to ash – may help. It may be enough to just journal about it. Regardless of how you do it, I encourage you to spend time making room for the new by releasing the old. This allows you to step into 2011 with that clean slate, fresh energy, and clear vision to make it another year of moving forward.

Tags: In with the New, New Year's Day ritual, Out with the old, ritual of the end of the year