It's the last day of the year, and for weeks now we have been bombarded with images and words encouraging us to make promises and resolutions, to choose words and mantras, all in the hopes that we will become brighter and shinier versions of ourselves. But here's the truth, no resolution or word or mantra makes you more worthy or more lovable. You are already just fine. You don't need to be upgraded to a better version of you, you just need to love the today you. To stop holding resistance and shame and criticism around any of the versions of you. To practice daily loving her. Loving you. Like all of you. The pretty and the nitty gritty, the unpredictable and the routine, the logical and the scattered non linear you. Holding the entirety of you with grace and compassion and awe. I mean honest to god awe at who you are, what you've done, because I don't care where you are standing or what is happening in your life, you are a miracle worthy of awe.
Now, as for words and hopes for the next chapter, for the next year? I say go for it--choose your word or your mantra, BUT only, and I mean only if it resonates with you. Only if it feels like something you want to do, not something you should do. You do not need something else on your to do list. You do not need another reason to feel like there is a "should" hanging over your head. And the context matters. How will you use your word? How will it show up in your day to day life? How will it help you navigate difficult moments? How will it function as your GPS and your rudder day to day? In other words, how will choosing a word make your life better? Let go of the pressure, the urgency, the expectation of getting it right. Ask yourself what you need. What direction feels like a soft place to land? A nourishing place to be? Head that direction. Now ask what word will keep you on this path?
I like to be able to use my word as a filter. I look at my uncomfortable feelings or my shame or my sadness or my exhaustion through the lens of my word. I dress with it in mind. I say yes or no depending on how I feel when I hold my word. It literally both guides me and keeps me on the path I have chosen. When I hold the lens of my word over my life it gives me clarity, it is simply tool that I have chosen, and through the devotion of holding it near me for a year, for practicing it's gift for a year, I give myself the gift of change, of evolution, the gift of moving closer home to myself.
So choose a word or don't. Choose one this month or next July. But just make sure my loves that whatever you choose, your choice is a gift to yourself. Your worthy, awe-inspiring, gorgeous lovable self. And of course, happy new year.