As soon as the clock struck midnight and Christmas day was over for another year, the ads for the new year began. On TV there are the Weightwatcher’s Quickstart ads complete with Oprah telling you that you can have bread and cheese and still lose weight and there’s that guy on the Peloton bike sweating up a storm. Then there are the escape to paradise ads because we all want to escape winter and there’s even financial health ads because your credit card may also need to go on a diet after the holiday spending frenzy.
On social media, everyone is trying to get you to sign up for their latest program, “You too can become a master at (fill in the blank here) with our ‘proven’, six figure earning, online method.”
In the marketing world of online and television, it is time to move on, 2020 is now here. But what we don’t hear a lot of, because frankly it doesn’t sell, is the need to wrap up 2019 and let it go.
2020 is a clean slate, full of possibilities and excitement. It is also a new decade so it’s a new chapter in time as well. To me that alone feels auspicious, like I am getting the chance for a major reset and I need to do my best not to screw it up. So in order to start fresh, don’t you think it’s a good idea to get our hearts and minds clear first?
If you carry the baggage of 2019 over to 2020 you will actually be living your life from the past. Let it go.
So what do you need to do in order to leave the guilt, disappointment, anguish, hurt, failure and confusion of 2019 behind? Simply put, you need to take some time to bring up, into your heart and mind, what you want to let go of and purposefully release it into the ether of the universe.
Here are a couple of ideas to do that. Nothing here is tough. What is the tough part is making the decision to cleanse your soul of the crap that is polluting it. Once you do that, you will feel energized to start 2020 with a fresh perspective.
- Wash your regrets away. Really. All you need is flowing water. A shower works perfectly. Bring up in your mind whatever you want to release, one at a time, and imagine them flow out of your head and heart, then out of your body and down the drain. Let the warm water release any tensions from your muscles and wash your soul clean.
- Write it out of you. Get those disappointments out of you and onto paper. Words have power, the physical aspect of letting the hurt flow out of you and onto paper energetically release the pent up emotions from your body. Now think of that written paper as only holding that released energy. In order for it to be fully transmuted, burn the paper and allow the smoke to dissipate into the air.
- Breath it out of you. For best results, go out into nature or where the freshest, cleanest air is available to you. Bring the guilt or hurt up and out of your heart and into your chest. With a deep breath blow that energy out of your lungs. I use a forceful “whaa” sound from my throat while I quickly compress the air out of my lungs. Almost like a cough but from much deeper in the chest. Now from your nose, breath in, as deeply as you can, fresh, clean air. Repeat with each though or emotion that needs releasing.
These are but three exercises to get you present and release the energies that no longer serve you moving forward into a new year, but in reality, all you really need is the will and intent to just let that shit go and all it takes is the decision to do it.
Put it there if it weighs a ton. That’s what a father said to his young son.
I don’t care if it weighs a ton. As long as you and I are here, put it there.
Paul McCartney
One of my favourite lyrics and such simple wisdom. Let the burdens of the past go. They have no place in what you are doing now and in the future. So leave them where they belong, in 2019. There will be plenty of time to make a whole bunch of new regrets in 2020. No sense in also carrying the old weight of what no longer serves you along with them.
Oh, and I almost forgot the most important part of all this releasing. It’s a powerful spell of sorts meant to seal the holes and heal the wounds left from ripping all that guilt and regret away from your soul. A few words that must be repeated in your heart and head as much as needed until peace fills your body and calms your being.
I forgive.
Add onto the end of those two words whatever or whoever needs to be forgiven but especially add yourself to the list. Because it is you who you must forgive the most. It is you who has carried those thoughts and feeling in your heart and mind for the last year, and it is you who needs the healing balm of this sacred of prayers the most.
2020 is almost here. A whole new decade awaits you with infinite possibilities. Release the past, forgive the transgressions of life and move forward cleansed and energizes for an abundance of new adventures in the future.
Happy New Year.
