These last few weeks have been disconcerting.
My greatest desire has been to spend as much time as possible under as many covers as possible. By 6:30, I’ve often been in bed, hunkering down with books or journals or deep diving into my Year-End Ritual (which I’m about to share).
At the same time, I’ve felt the end of the year rush – fitting in that last session with a client I love, coordinating the holidays, preparing new programs to be ready for the new year.
My “slow down” desire feels in sync with this pre-Solstice time when we head toward the darkest day of the year.
I feel the deep need to tend to my inner light – which feels dim and watery this month as I navigate through the inner darkness of stirred up emotion, questioning what’s right and true for my life and for where my soul is calling me to go.
The rush feels manufactured.
We’ve collectively agreed that the year ends on an arbitrary date and added in shopping! and socializing! and more activity! at the time of year when our sweet soft bodies are asking for rest.
The work I do – inviting women to slow down and turn within to be able to hear what your soul is asking for so your inner light can be tended to and kept bright, so you can heal deeply and create a life that you don’t want to escape from – often also feels out of sync with our modern world that wants sound bites, fast results and 3 steps to change your life now, today.
Several clients who I worked with years ago messaged me this last week sharing how far they’ve come and how deep and long-lasting our work together was.
Which made me think about how to support the slow and deep and sustainable transformations.
I’ll admit I often have a hard time recalling what’s shifted in my life come December. I feel emptied out and ready to curl in and yet my full and modern life and world ask me to keep going.
So one of the ways I take deep care of myself during these dark days is to carve out time to reflect on the year before I set any intents for the coming one (I’ll share how I prepare for the new year in my next email and I promise it has nothing to do with New Year’s Resolutions).
Reflecting on the year lets me compost all the experiences, lessons, feelings, challenges and growth. It helps uplift my perspective to see how far I have come beyond the last purge of inner movement that happens at the end of each year.
When I asked a few clients what they were doing as an end of year ritual, they noted their desire for one but hadn’t yet developed that practice.
So I’m sharing mine with you with the invitation to take only what nourishes your soul and leave the rest. This is not meant to be another “to do” – rather it’s a way to come into harmony with the natural cycles of creation and of our natural world.
It’s also not one that happens in an hour.
I let this practice spread out over days or even weeks. I’ve had years where it doesn’t feel complete until well into January and other years when all I needed was a lovely afternoon with a cup of tea, my journals spread all around me on my sheepskin. Pure joy.
My Year-End Ritual
To prep: Pull out your calendar (mine is digital), any journals from the year (also digital as I now use a Remarkable e-notebook), any notes from new moons or full moons if you have them and your phone or computer.
Add any cozy that calls to you – blankets, pillows, tea, markers.
Finally bring your curiosity and contemplative self. This isn’t an exercise in judgment. It’s an opportunity to delight, praise and honor yourself.
I create a special notebook called “Reflections on the Year” so I can look back on it throughout the seasons and next December, which makes this process even yummier each year.
Now pick and choose what calls to you. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do this.
1. Quick Calendar Review
Starting with January and continuing each month, I scroll through each week and jot down clients I’ve worked with, events or ceremonies I offered or attended, trips or fun outings.
I also have space for any weekly or monthly activities and more significant happenings. For example, this year I had weekly Money Love dates with my husband, I hired an assistant and one of my kiddos started seeing a homeopath every 5 weeks.
If it feels worthy of writing it down and honoring it, do. This review at a glance helps me remember just how full my year was and to appreciate all I did.
2. Journal & Moon Cycle Review
To explore what was happening in my inner world work, I next page through my journals for the year. I skim the pages and read whatever catches my attention. I might note any repeating themes like “I opened to support in my business” or “Really embraced my North Node life lessons this year.”
Because I use my journal to process my emotions and sort out my thoughts, I also remind myself that my writings contain what I was grinding on more than my gratitudes.
I also pull out the cards where I written my new moon and full moon intents on that were added to my Active Altar (each month when I refresh my altar, I put the cards into a special box so I have them at the end of the year).
3. Dream Review
This part can take a while and was inspired by Diomira D’Agostino – and it’s one of the reasons I switched to a digital notebook so I could have a separate file on my nighttime dreams (instead of them being mixed into a handwritten journal and therefore hard to find.)
Again I go month to month, writing a few bullet points from each dream and adding any interpretations. I look for recurring images and make connections to my everyday life – for example, one year I dreamt about being a principal, principals I knew and school over and over again. It was the year I birthed my mystery school.
If animals show up, I’ll google “(insert animal name medicine) card meaning” or look up what their medicine is.
This review gives me insight into my subconscious and psyche.
4. Financial Review
I am a big blend of practical and spiritual, so yes, I also look back over my money goals for the year and review what I did or didn’t accomplish. I use an 80/20 process that I learned from Relaxed Money guru Kate Northrup for my business to look at which offerings created the most impact for the least effort.
5. Previous Year’s Intent
Next, I pull out my previous New Year’s Intents (I’ll share more in the next email) around my words for the year, Oracle Cards I’ve pulled, any notes on the year’s astrology, messages from my guides and my desires and dreams. I reflect on how these themes showed up (or didn’t) during the year.
6. Reflections on the Year
Okay last one. Finally, I sit with all of this. Yes it’s a lot – and it’s worth it.
I capture any bigger themes from the year such as “I relaxed into and tended to my money” or “I embraced the masculine – support, structure, goals.”
I tune into my Spirit Guides and inner parts that I’ve been working with and ask them for any reflections, often channeling a letter from them to the Meghan of today.
Whew. And…
What might open up for you if you allowed yourself to digest this year?
If you celebrated and honored how far you’ve come?
What I experience within myself and with my clients is that we often need to “catch up” to ourselves and bring what we’ve been through and what we are still carrying before we move forward into the new.
Our inner parts, our soul and even our mind can exhale and relax as they feel seen, heard and held.
I’m about to go offline between Solstice and New Year to spend time with my family and friends, rest, allow the beauty of fallow ground before returning with post-Solstice light and replenishment.
This way of being – syncing up with the seasons and trusting that when you slow down you also create a cyclical updraft that carries you through the year with less effort, more ease and more fulfillment.
I’m going to let me automated elves send out the next email sharing my New Year Intent practice.
I’d love to hear from you on what you unearth from your year-end reflections -and know I’ll respond after I’ve hibernated.
To the light within you,
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