Approaching the New Year With Grace
I believe a new year is best approached with a lot of grace— grace for our processes, grace for each other, grace for all the things that feel done and complete from the previous year, and grace for all that still feel undone and a work in progress.
Resolutions, intentions, and visions can be wonderful, pointing us in the direction we wish to go. But they can also feel like added pressure and a setup for failure if it’s not the right season in life or we are not in a space to follow through.
Expectation management is a beautiful thing; part of grace is finding more self-kindness and forgiveness for our expectations and learning when to soften and when to push.
Grace means we give ourselves space to figure these things out for ourselves. It means we learn to take deep breaths, work with where our lives are at, and learn to discern what can be changed and what is beyond our capacity to change. Grace also means moving towards change and growth at our own pace and allowing for more breath and fluidity when we’re not getting there as quickly as we thought we should.
Grace is fluid. Grace knows how to help us meet ourselves exactly where we are at.
Grace knows when to throw a resolution list out the window or when to nudge us to take one small step toward an intention we set.
Grace asks us to alchemize practicality and reality with vision and expansion, allowing room for the universe to meet us in that space and help us find our way.
Grace knows that we don’t always have to stay on track and that progress isn’t always linear; it also happens in curves, spirals, and retrogrades.
Grace knows that progress, according to the path of our soul, can look very different from the mind’s expectations.
Grace teaches us to better listen to our hearts so we can feel more in touch and in step with our soul and move away from the rigid constructs of the mind that often keep us stuck in old stories of failure and not being enough.
All this and so much more are why I believe in approaching a new year with grace and a heart-based perspective—choosing to work with the flow of life with presence and mindfulness. Choosing to learn when to acquiesce into peaceful surrender, when to push and strive harder, and how to be okay with all that feels in-between and grey.
Choosing to breathe more deeply, keep learning to be at peace in each moment, and trust in life’s greater process and love’s grace.
Happy New Year Everyone. Whatever this year holds, may it be filled with peace, inspiration and, of course, grace.
If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy the blog posts Grace, Growth & Gratitude or Reordering My Heart. Or for more on this topic, you might also dip into this recent episode from the Your Heart Magic Podcast.
Last, you might enjoying diving into my newest book: Small Pearls Big Wisdom.
