Imagine today is December 31, 2021. You’re preparing to celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends or family. An entire year has come and gone. Coronavirus. The election. Lockdowns…ALL the challenges of 2020 are faded memories.
Where are you? What are your plans for tomorrow? For the year ahead…2022? Are you happy? Healthy? Whole in your understanding of yourself and your purpose in the world?
Your answers will depend on your mindset. How aligned you are with your dreams and desires. And the actions you’ve taken toward your health, wealth, and relationship goals.
You might be thinking…that sounds intriguing, but how do I get the right mindset? How do I get aligned? And how can I best take action to accomplish that special New Year’s resolution or an overall better quality of life?
Our mission at Silver Tree Wellness Center is to reverse the root cause of your healthcare condition and restore your joy in living. In my practice, I’ve learned that true healing requires not only physical care but also emotional, mental, and spiritual care. A balanced mind, body, and spirit restores homeostasis and leads to health at every level of your being.
Unto that end, I’m sharing six sacred actions you can take right now to release old thoughts, feelings, patterns, and beliefs that no longer serve your highest good. Incorporate these sacred acts into your life to start the year with a clean white canvas and create a life you love.
Reflection is the sacred act of looking back at your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds with the intention of making adjustments to your habits. While the New Year is an ideal time to reflect on the big picture of the year’s progress toward your goals, reflection practiced each day can accelerate your productivity exponentially. The key to reflection is making it a priority.
Just like a New Year’s resolution, you might start with the intention to regularly reflect and course correct. But after a few weeks (or days), you’re back to your same old busy behaviors, rushing through day…after day…after day. With little time set aside to look back, you miss out on the fruits of life’s lessons. Learning what you did well, celebrating a job well done or an act of kindness, and what you could do to improve during that stressful meeting or fight with your spouse makes you a better human.
Reflection is a sacred act because it requires devoting time and energy to turn around and take a thoughtful look at yourself. Like all the sacred acts on this list, effective reflection means turning off the television and stopping the scroll. It means quieting your mind and being humble enough to admit you made a mistake when you lost your cool and yelled at your child. It means giving yourself a little pat on the back for maintaining your exercise routine. Most of all, it means loving yourself despite any shortcomings.
Reflection results in self-awareness, a deeper understanding of who you are and who you’d like to become to reach your highest potential. From this point of knowing yourself, you’re empowered to take practical steps to change if you’re unhappy with who you are or your life conditions.
Tip: Journaling is a powerful method of reflection. Let’s say you want to change your eating habits. Write down everything you eat. Then review your list, reflecting on how each item made you feel. Reminding yourself that those greasy fries gave you brain fog will empower you to make a better choice next time.
Compassion is the sacred act of being gentle on yourself and others. For many, it’s habitual to criticize, condemn, or judge when things go wrong. Practicing compassion can give you a new perspective that’ll change the way you respond when faced with pain, injustice, failure, illness, death, and more.
Compassion begins with the understanding that suffering is part of the human condition. This understanding is followed by a gentle response to relieve that suffering whenever possible. So compassion is the ability to empathize with the pendulum of human emotions and respond with acts of loving kindness. When you develop the ability to act compassionate, research shows you’ll be happier and enjoy more self-esteem.
I’ve seen the painful consequences of the lack of compassion when it comes to invisible healthcare conditions. Your spouse may not look sick, but the effects of a chronic inflammatory response or an autoimmune condition on his or her well-being are often catastrophic. Please…never downplay invisible illness with comments such as, “You look fine to me.”
Extend the sacred act of being gentle to yourself. Rather than beating yourself up for eating ALL the cookies, recognize that perfection isn’t attainable in this world. Replace critical self talk with honesty and affirmations of how you’d like to behave instead…Eating the entire box of cookies wasn’t the best decision. I care about my health. I make healthy choices. I choose to eat foods that nourish my body and make me feel fantastic.
Tip: If you find yourself argumentative, unable to listen, always blaming your problems on someone else, or having uncontrolled emotional outbursts, make compassion a priority. Remember, you never know what someone else is going through. And you never know what’s around the next bend in your own life.
Surrender is the sacred act of letting go. It sounds easy enough. But the need to maintain control is powerful. And holding on to past hurts such as a cheating spouse or getting fired from a job you loved can keep you from ever reaching your desired outcome.
Practicing surrender is a sacred act because it involves acknowledging you’re never truly in control. You simply can’t be sure if tomorrow will bring a miraculous blessing, a normal day, or the end of life. When you can let go of that tight grip of control, surrendering all you are, think you are, or hope to be, fear of the future or past regrets have less power over your decisions. It becomes easier to stay in “the now.” Happiness and fulfillment in the present moment becomes the goal.
The difference between letting go and trying to control what happens to you is like floating downriver on a pontoon boat versus paddling upstream with a pool noodle. Many people only practice the sacred act of letting go when they’ve hit rock bottom or have exhausted all their options. They’ve spent decades eating healthy and exercising regularly only to receive a cancer diagnosis. Or they’ve worked decades to land the title and the fancy office only to lose it to a younger colleague.
When you practice letting go, you release expectations and the disappointment that can come when they go unmet. But surrender isn’t giving up. It’s giving up the struggle. It’s accepting there’s forces beyond our control and staying poised and peaceful come what may.
Tip: Surrender isn’t a one and done act of letting go. It’s an ongoing process of releasing the pressures that cause you to try so hard you lose the joy in living. Trust the universe to deliver your every desire. “The struggle is real” doesn’t have to be true when you practice the sacred act of letting go and, instead, go with the flow.
Celebration is the sacred act of acknowledging. When it comes to a Happy New Year and a Happy New You, celebrating the big and little victories you’ve achieved to make progress toward your dreams can make all the difference.
Maybe you missed your six-figure income goal last year, but you broke the five-figure mark for six months in a row. Celebrate! Perhaps your goal is to get out of bed every day and take a walk despite your chronic illness. Don’t criticize yourself if you miss a day or two. Instead, celebrate every little win from noticing a feather fall in your path to the smile that formed on your face when the little child waved.
The sacred act of acknowledgement does wonders to move you from a state of worry to a state of wonder and even awe at the miracle of your existence on the earth. Stopping to celebrate the seemingly small tasks checked off your to-do list will keep you motivated when reaching your big goals feels far away. So celebrate the loaded dishwasher, the folded laundry, the feeling of a job well done.
Tip: If you’re interested in increasing your frequency and attracting more victories in your life, pause for at least 68 seconds to deeply acknowledge how joyful you feel when you celebrate a win. Keep your attention fixed on that feeling and nothing else. In doing so, you’re raising your vibration to the frequency of joy and become a tuning fork for more joyful feelings and experiences to come to you.
Connection is the sacred act of reaching out. Human connection or a lack thereof affects your health. Feeling connected to other people can help you maintain a healthy weight, stabilize blood sugar, increase rates of cancer survival, lower depression, improve your immune system, and more.
Because of the social isolation we’ve all endured during the pandemic, connection is more important than ever. Reaching out to friends and family members you haven’t spoken to in a while is a sacred act that benefits both sides. And the end of the year is a good time to ask for forgiveness and close old wounds once and for all. But as with the other sacred acts, connection is best applied as a daily ritual.
Extend the sacred act of reaching out to your Higher Power. Putting your attention on your Source and giving gratitude for all your blessings can make you feel connected to something bigger, energizing you with happiness and purpose.
Tip: Practice the sacred art of connection to your Higher Power through a New Year ritual. Spending time in prayer or meditation, asking for direction when setting next new goals, and creating a vision board to represent what you receive is a fun way to get clear on your desires. It also serves as a source of inspiration through the year.
Replenishment is the sacred art of recharging your batteries. Every system in the human body is in motion, creating an electromagnetic field (biofield) around your body. Energy medicine practitioners assess and treat imbalances within the biofield to reestablish homeostasis. But there are countless practices you can do on your own to recharge your biofield batteries and feel happier and healthier in the new year and beyond.
A vacation or staycation is one of the best ways to fully recharge your energetic batteries. Visit a hot springs spa or cabin in the wilderness where you can unplug from technology and reconnect with the frequencies of nature, your Higher Power, and your family. If you prefer to stay home right now, put your devices in a cupboard, pull out a book, run a bath, or simply sit outside and do nothing.
The sacred art of replenishment means treating yourself to time where you do what you want to do not what you have to do. Put your to-do list on the back burner and put your happiness front and center. Day-to-day, a meditation or exercise routine is an ideal way to replenish your body, mind, and spirit
Tip: Practice the sacred art of replenishment by finding a way to laugh out loud. Children laugh around 400 times a day while adults laugh about 15 times. A happy new you ought to laugh more. Watch a classic comedy. Try laughter yoga. Reminisce with friends about happy times gone by.
These six sacred acts of releasing the old and beginning anew are for you to practice not only at the start of the New Year but also as a way to sustain joy day-to-day. Making time for reflection, compassion, surrender, celebration, connection, and replenishment will lead to a happier, healthier you in the New Year and beyond. I’d love to hear from you. Head over to our Facebook page and share the sacred acts that bring you joy with the Silver Tree community!
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