NOW is the Time to Reset Your Year

The Summer Solstice was June 20th (this past Saturday), followed by a new moon and solar eclipse. Whether or not you’re spiritual, or whether or not you’re into astrology, the Summer Solstice signifies that we are (almost) halfway through the year, and it signifies the beginning of summer and is also the longest day of the year, at least for us in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the Summer Solstice was synced up with a new moon and solar eclipse. New moons typically represent new beginnings, as do solstices. As we change from spring to summer and as we mark the halfway point of 2020, we can use this time to reevaluate our goals and intentions and set new ones.

While I’m still continuing to work towards the intentions I set at the end of last year and beginning of this year, I am using this time as a new beginning to level up and refocus on who I want to be and what I want to accomplish before starting my master’s program in the fall. The pandemic hit in March, my job ended abruptly, and I have spent the last three months predominantly inside (as most of us have). Because I was forced to slow down, I ended up doing a lot of healing work during this time. By healing work, I mean I did a lot of work examining my judgments of others and myself which led me to do a lot of forgiveness work as well, and I also spent a lot of time looking at my beliefs that were holding me back.

INVEST YOUR TIME IN HEALING

This healing work allowed me to get really clear on exactly what I want to bring into my life, so if you have not yet done a lot of healing work on yourself, or taken time to examine what beliefs are holding you back, I’d recommend starting with that as one of your intentions for the summer. This might sound a bit weird and a little esoteric if this concept is new to you, but the most important step in facilitating this is just to OBSERVE. Observe your thoughts, judgments, and the beliefs you have about yourself and they will make you become aware of the negative patterns you have in your life. For example, scrolling on Instagram for 30 minutes straight may cause you to go into a comparison spiral and result in you not feeling good enough about yourself. By observing this pattern, you realize you hold onto the belief that you’re not good enough and this is triggered by comparing yourself to others. You can then go and think of past events that caused you to feel this way and begin to forgive those memories, the people involved, and yourself.

SET INTENTIONS, NOT GOALS

Lately, I’ve stopped setting goals but instead adopted the habit of setting intentions. You can set daily intentions as well bigger intentions. The reason I decided to change my terminology in this way is because, sometimes, the word goal has a negative connotation. For example, we have all set BIG goals in the past (like New Year’s Resolutions) that we had every intention of sticking to and ended up failing at. Because of this, we condition ourselves to view goals as too far-fetched. By using the word intentions instead of goals, we are INTENDING something to happen, which, in my opinion, seems a lot more likely than just setting a goal. I set daily intentions as well as monthly and yearly intentions. By accomplishing small daily intentions, we train ourselves to also accomplish bigger and “loftier” monthly and yearly intentions as well. 

REFOCUS YOUR PRIORITIES AND DO LESS

Going off of the last point, every day I set three intentions in lieu of making a to-do list. In order to do this, you have to really rethink your priorities. For me, I have my daily self-care habits I strive to do, but my intentions that I set are always business or school related. The way you choose to do this is up to you, but ultimately it makes you really think about what is the most important for you to accomplish in that day. Obviously, if you work a 9 to 5 job, for example, you might have a lot of tasks you need to do throughout the day, so you could dedicate your three intentions to things you want to get done before and after work. Recently I did an exercise where I wrote down the five most important categories in my life, and everything that I do, every decision that I make, and all of my intentions are centered around them. These categories for me are health and wellness, business, my community (the people closest to me), adventure, and spirituality and self-development. I found that this was a really good exercise to reevaluate what is the most important to me.

NOW is the time to reset your year, refocus your priorities, and set powerful intentions for the months ahead. Now is the time for a perfect new beginning.

Also, be sure to follow my Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube Channel to stay up to date!