What Is Wanting to Emerge in 2022?

I hope you are well and safe! If not newly restored then finding your feet, settling into this New Year as you take in the external landscape around you as well as the internal landscape within yourself.

Do you have a sense of ground beneath you?
Does it feel steady and smooth or shaky and bumpy?
Do you visualize stepping stones beneath your feet, thick deep snow or perhaps shifting sand?

Whatever life terrain you find yourself on, may your next steps be surefooted.

Over the last few years, it has become a practice for me not to rush into January with all guns blazing. In the past, one little hiccup regarding New Year resolutions and I’d stumble, lose traction, feel guilty and give up.

These days, I prefer to focus on setting clear intentions from a place of reflection, enquiry and deep listening that emerges from the inside out.

Allowing my mind to become quieter, I find space for ideas to seed, possibilities to emerge.

We are all capable of creating meaningful change and when we develop simple practices that come from a place of intention and kindness towards ourselves, we’re able to build a solid, sustainable foundation for growth.

I came across Ethan Nichtern’s suggestion recently, that helps to put habitual patterns in perspective:

“We say, ‘I am going to make an impact, and it’s going to be different from how I was last year!’ So, there’s a setting of intention that’s based on getting away from ourself, getting away from ‘bad me.’ It’s really subtle. I would really encourage you to look in your reflection for how a narrative or embodied feeling of ‘bad me’— original badness, original sin—comes up.” —Ethan Nichtern

The more judgemental we become, the more we distance ourselves from our truth.

This practice is about touching into your intuition and allowing clarity, ideas and desires to evolve from a place of being rather than doing.

Preparation for Practice

• You’ll need a notebook or journal and pen.
• If you’re creative and see in images, feel free to colour, draw, paint, collage your ideas.
• Find a quiet place at home, light a candle, have a nourishing or refreshing drink close by, maybe some music, look out of the window and settle into a comfortable seat.

OR

• Visit a cozy coffee shop, order a warm, delicious drink and absorb the sights, smells and sounds around you.

Practice: Moving Forward in 2022

Bring your attention inwards and downwards as you settle, allow your breath to follow. Take a few slow, deep breaths. Then open a notebook, journal or artist pad and without overthinking, in fact try not to think at all, feel into the answers.

Trust that your first thoughts are your best thoughts.

Now answer these questions as you consider moving forward in 2022:

• How do I want to feel?
• How do I want to love?
• How do I want to contribute?
• How do I want to connect?
• How do I want to move my body?
• What would feel joyful?
• What would feel creative?
• How can I rest wholeheartedly?

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are still in the depths of winter, nature is dormant but still very much alive. It won’t be long before the first snowdrops push their way through the hard, frozen soil. Give yourself permission to follow nature’s lead, let the seeds of your ideas incubate a little longer, consider what possibilities are wanting to emerge.

What insights have you gleaned? Is there perhaps another question? Another idea?

I’d love to hear what came up for you. You can click here to send me a note.

Sending care to you all.

Karen x

P.S. Registration is now open for Yoga and Self-Care Retreats this spring, summer and autumn. Click Retreats on the menu above to learn more.