Greeting the New Year Consciously

Please Note:  Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist.  To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the ACEP website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.

As the season explodes with the message to ‘Party, Party, Party,’ many of us are turning away from what Leonard Cohen calls the ‘hurly burly’ of daily life to attend instead to our inner guidance.  When we turn inward at this time of year, we are creating the sacred space necessary for reflection about the year that is slipping away and about the year to come.  New Year’s Eve is a potent time for those of us committed to living consciously, because it offers us a clear ending and a clear beginning in a single moment.  As we light our candles, gather our thoughts, and open our hearts and our journals, we are consciously attending to where we have been physically, emotionally, and spiritually; when we complete these reflections, we then turn our attention to our aspirations and intentions for the year to come.

Reflection as Sacred BodyMind Work

Specific questions help to support our intention to create a consciously chosen future.  For example, we may ask, ‘What are my best sources of inspiration for crafting the life I want to manifest?  How can I best take care of myself in this new year? Where do I want to place my attention as I move forward?  Who is this person I am becoming and how can she/he contribute to the beauty and harmony of the world?’

Taking the time to pause after each question activates our inner guidance and helps us to develop trust in the Self and our powers of reflection.  Answers often come in the form of images, hunches, and sometimes complete sentences.  Whatever your guidance provides as you ask your questions, be sure to make a note of it.  Reviewing what surfaces from this sacred conversation will yield many and varied blessings over the days and weeks to come.   A note about New Year’s Resolutions:  these may or may not be part of our reflection practice; what is essential is our intention to be present with the Self, to attend to whatever guidance surfaces, and to honour the sacred work we are doing by recording it in some way that makes revisiting our insights possible.

The Courage to be Radically Different

In this fast past world, finding time to sit in candle light to reflect on personal achievements and goals not yet attained is a rare and wonder-filled opportunity to meet our most radically inspired Self.  Doing this sacred work invites change, and embracing change requires courage.  Tapping can help us to calm the terror we may feel as we embark on a new path.  Simply saying, “I’m scared to death.  I don’t know where I’m going.  I don’t know who will help me.  I’m moving into uncharted territory,” while tapping will help to release the charge anxiety carries.

Once that anxiety charge is released, we can tap on our right to fail, to make mistakes, to stumble as we move forward.  Sometimes our so-called errors or missteps are the very actions that bring us closer to where we truly yearn to be.  Tapping through the points while saying the following is very helpful:  “It’s okay to fail; I’m an adventurer; I don’t have to be perfect; I only have to be authentic; I can take missteps; if I do my best and end up in a mess, that’s okay; I will learn from my mistakes and move on; I’m always learning; I am always on my path.”

Being Fearful and Being Safe

If there is a specific fear that looms, tap on that.  For example, you may be feeling desperate about ending a relationship or beginning one, getting out of a job or finding a new one, or shifting addictive behaviours to those behaviours which lead to their release.  Usually our desperation comes from feeling powerless to initiate the change we long to bring into our lives.  Telling the truth about these feelings of powerlessness and even impotence is always the very best place to begin.  Tapping generally might sound like this:  “I don’t know how to effect this change; I’m stuck here.  I hate feeling stuck.  I am terrified of this feeling of powerlessness.  I don’t know how to move forward.  I’m stuck.  This is hopeless.  I will be in this situation for the rest of my life.”

By tapping on these intensely negative feelings, we are honouring them with our attention, and our attention lets them know that we understand  they are our faithful guardians.  The intensity of our feelings signals how seriously they take the work of keeping us safe.  Tapping is a form of communication the body – the place where our feelings live – does not resist.  Our hearts are tapping organs; each heart provides its steward and owner with a deep connection to the natural rhythms of life.  Tapping mimics the heart’s life giving rhythms; its non verbal communication complements whatever words we may speak by providing the sensitive, skittish body with the assurance that all is well, that moving forward is safe, and that growth is a natural part of life.  In fact, tapping while saying this comforting phrase, “Growth is a natural part of life,” is a great gift the body will receive gratefully.

As we begin the countdown to midnight, may we attune to our deepest, truest longings.  May these longings lead us to fashion lives that will bring joy to ourselves, to others, and to our beautiful Earth home.  And, may we all have a Happy – and Sacred – New Year!

Until next week

Jane

aamet_logo_145

Jane Buchan, MA, AAMET Advanced Practitioner, jane@winterblooms.net, 802-533-9277

Jane is a Learning Coach specializing in neutralizing cultural age, gender, and race constructs to support learners of every age.  To engage her coaching services, please contact Jane by phone (802) 533-9277 or email, jane@winterblooms.net.  Be sure to put Coaching Query in the subject line.