Soul Reflections: Preparing for a New Year of Alignment

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Reflecting on This Past Year

It’s the time of year that I begin to take stock of this year that is coming to a close. Many rush ahead planning for the next year, choosing their “word” for the upcoming year and setting goals and intentions. I’m doing some planning for 2024 but, before I roll into the new year I take time to reflect on all that 2023 was for me and close it out with a beautiful Soul Ritual.

As I begin to do this, it’s actually embarrassing to admit, but here’s my truth.

As I glance through the rear-view mirror into 2023 if I had to choose a word that I FEEL best describes the entire year of 2023 it’s MISALIGNED.

At first that realization made me angry and sad and upset at myself. I know I tried many times to re-align but re-align to what??? I have learned that to be aligned we must be aligning to some thing 🤔 But what was that thing for me?

I feel as though I spent much of this year in a straight jacket ⛓ struggling to get out of it. Looking outside of myself versus inside. Looking at trends and algorithms. Listening to the advice of others. Comparing. Screaming and dying inside while I walked through it all, ignoring myself.

I had to sit in the DISCOMFORT of that straightjacket of misaligned to see this entire year. I then had to sit with the FEELINGS of what I was seeing. Only then could I begin to break out of the straightjacket and lean back into what I choose to be aligned with:

🙌 SELF. My heart, my soul, my being.

🌲 NATURE. Creative thinking and creative BEing are born in the forest and at play (not in front of a screen)

✨ ENERGY. Living, loving, and serving from overflow versus over-care.

🗣 What I LOVE to do: breathe, serve, and guide women through their 💩 to their joy.

The Danger of Disconnecting

You see, alignment gets fractured when we disconnect from ourself.

When we numb ourself with scrolling, shopping, alcohol, food, exercise (the list goes on and on and on...).

Misalignment happens when we spend too much time in front of a screen (thinking or not thinking).

Too much time on social media (comparing 🌪).

Too much time in our head ("what if"-ing and worrying 🤯).

Too much time doing any one thing actually (because variety is the spice of life 🌶).

Alignment comes with ease. With joy. With passion. With play. It comes from being in our heart and soul, in our feeling and knowing.

For me it comes with getting off a client call and sitting in the blissed out FEELING of “I love what I get to do in my life”. I get to clean the windshield of life for each woman I work with so she can see her way more clearly, see her greatness, finally see her magnificent self and connect to and live aligned with her most amazing self.

Alignment FEELS SO GOOD 🙌

For me it feels light, spacious, like my breath is endless.

It feels FREE.

Now I couldn’t recognize what alignment felt like for me 👆🏼 without being in the discomfort of misalignment. You see, everything has an opposite. To see or feel one thing we must see or feel it’s opposite.

When I look back, I’m looking through a smaller mirror, in the direction I’m not going. It provides a reference point of where I started and a reflection of where I’ve come from and of my life and growth journey this year.

If we allow it, that rear-view can be filled with information and clarity for each of us to move forward from. To then look forward through the big, expansive windshield of whats lying ahead for us.

Soul Ritual Reflection Exercise

This SOUL RITUAL REFLECTION EXERCISE can be done in a couple of sittings and doesn’t really take that long so don’t feel that you can’t do it (unless you’ve pre-decided that 😉). Set some time aside, grab your journal and write ✍

1. Begin with some intentional breath work. Place your left hand on your heart centre and, through your nose, inhale for a count of 4 and exhale for a count of 4, repeating for 4 rounds 🌬

2. Then ask yourself what are you feeling when you look back through that small rear-view mirror into 2023? (Tip: think and feel and then if you need a memory jog it can be helpful to quickly review your journal entries for the year or your photos of the year - scan them for highlights, low lights, reminders of you year)

3. What one word might describe your year? (No judgement here, it’s just a word).

4. Can you see growth/learning/change in your year of 2023? Where? How? In what areas?

5. Through that growth/learning/change and realization, can you gift yourself compassion?

6. Can you take some time to write yourself a love letter. Cheer yourself on for all the things that were epic and great on one page (maybe an amazing trip you planned and went on, a difficult conversation you had that went really well, how you supported someone in their life or yourself in yours) and then, on another page list things that did not go as you thought they “should” or planned that they “would”. Gift yourself compassion, forgiveness, and love for it ALL.

7. Declare, with compassion, forgiveness and love that you are releasing those things that did not go as you’d hoped and planned.

8. Then on the Full Moon on Tuesday, December 26 burn that declaration list. Say aloud “I release this ….. (recite the declaration) and so it is done” 🔥

9. Complete this burning ritual with either a soul cleansing shower or a bath. If you choose a shower, when you are complete, turn the water off and let it all drain from beneath your feet before you step out to dry off. If you choose a bath, pull the plug and let the water drain around you before you stand up and step out.

10. Dry off. Cover yourself with so much love, with a favourite full body moisturizer and hydrate by drinking water.

There you have it! This is how to end this year in soul alignment with yourself and be ready to welcome in the greatness of the New Year with a clean slate and nothing but love for yourself as you do it!

Let me know how this goes for you, I’d love to know! If you have any questions or wish to share anything please leave me a comment or send me an email.

As for me, I’m excited for the view of my small rear view mirror, for the growth and clarity I see there. But as I look through the large windshield ahead of me into 2024 I’m SO EXCITED for what’s coming. What I’m creating. What I’ll be doing and what opportunities I’ll be offering for YOU in 2024.

If you’d like to learn more about all the ways I can support you in your one audacious life, visit my website at www.theaudaciousempire.com.

Also be on the lookout for amazing new offerings coming early in 2024! I’m so so so excited to share what’s coming!!!!

Audaciously,

Sharon xo