Conscious Closure of 2010

As the year is coming to a close we can embrace a significant opportunity to consciously reflect upon life.  We can connect with the meaning of our past year and bring closure to this creative cycle.   Here are some tips for intentionally connecting to the purpose of your year and moving into the New Year with conscious grace. 

·   Set aside quiet time to reflect on 2010 over the next few days.   Give yourself 15 – 30 minutes each day to quietly connect with the process of creating closure.  Turn off the phones and schedule time that will be uninterrupted.  Get a journal or note paper to record your process.  Play soothing music.  Light a candle and/or incense to set the intention for that time.  

·   Step 1: Consider what you experienced in 2010.  As you sit in your quiet space consider the year as if it were a film you have just seen.  Don’t evaluate the value of the movie, the leading character (you) or other players.  Breathe deeply and observe the movie of this past year as if you were a neutral observer in the audience. What is the movie about?  Who are the major players?  What are the primary themes of this movie?  What was the dramatic arc of the film? What did the characters accomplish, struggle through and learn?  You may want to write out the story or simply observe it through your meditations.  If emotions arise, let them come as you breathe through them without judging anything you feel.  See if you can witness the story without attaching to the players or outcomes.  Simply observe. 

·   Step 2: Isolate the themes.  Sitting quietly in your uninterrupted space, reflect on the themes for your year.    What are the big ideas running throughout 2010?  Was 2010 about family, change, money, health?  What were the primary messages showing up throughout the year?  Where did your energy tend to go?  How do these themes relate to each character within your 2010 storyline?  What did you, as the main character of your story, learn this year?  What did you resist?  Are you willing to expand through whatever you resisted?  Are you embracing what was learned?  What did you gain from this year?  What did you offer to the world this year? After you have isolated the themes, give yourself time to reflect on these.  

·   Step 3: Name your Story.   Sit quietly in your space and breathe deeply.  2010 provided great opportunities for your soul to expand. What was the primary theme or message of 2010?  What does the story of your 2010 life-journey want to be called?  Give your story a name. Do the characters, including you have names too?  Perhaps there are chapters in your story that deserve headings as well. 

·   Step 4: Appreciate. Sit quietly in your uninterrupted space and breathe deeply into your body.  Call light to yourself and allow the light to settle into every aspect of your being.  Feel the essence of light expanding into your cells, flourishing throughout your body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  Expand the light and allow it to enfold you until you are basking in a sphere of light.  As you bask in this light, settle into a deep appreciation for you, your journey and all it has given to you.  Become aware of all the help you have received in the physical and from the non-physical world.   Spend time experiencing the sense of gratitude for what you have created in 2010, how it has helped you to grow and to contribute into the world. Appreciate YOU and all that you have experienced and learned through; all that you have shared with the world and all that you are. Everything that you experience in this physical world is designed to uplift, enrich, empower and evolve you.

·   Step 5: Going Forward.   As you sit quietly, breathing deeply into your body, consider the gifts you have received from your journey in 2010.  There may be places that you do not appreciate, enjoy or experience value.  Offer compassion to where you resist.  You may have observed patterns that no longer serve you and you may choose to let these go. Write on a piece of paper where you do not appreciate and where you may resist; write where you want to release.  Then set the intention to allow a higher perspective into your consciousness and the gifts from these experiences to arise throughout your awareness.  As an act of acknowledgment, you may want throw the pieces of paper into a safe fire, as you affirm your willingness to release, open and expand into a new horizon. What you release opens you to new experiences.  What are you taking with you into 2011 from your lessons learned in 2010?  What power are you integrating into your new way of speaking, thinking, feeling and acting?  What are you creating in 2011?

·   Step 6: Creating 2011. You are the creative force behind your life story.  What will you create in 2011?  Take time to peacefully contemplate what you want to experience in this coming year.  As you breathe deeply into your body, imagine yourself doing this very same conscious closure process at the end of next year.  What do you want the2011 story to be about?  What will you have learned and shared with the world?  How will you feel at the end of next year?  What do you appreciate at the end of next year?  You can write the plot for 2011 and give meaning to this story now.  Make a conscious effort to intend, allow and appreciate your life.  As you set the intention, you then allow your spirit to lead the way through this journey by practicing sitting in uninterrupted space daily, breathing deeply and intentionally connecting with your soul.  As you do this, feel into your true essence and allow that light to expand intentionally into your physical life.  Notice your creative journey unfolding through you consciously and appreciate how you are allowing your true essence to flourish into the creations of your new year. As you do this, you will consciously create a meaningful and spirit centered 2011.

May you experience the bliss of your divine self now.  May all beings experience the bliss of divinity in every possible way.  May all life on earth create and know peace.   

I am seeing you experiencing a peaceful closure to 2010 and a blissful creative journey in 2011.  Thank you for all the ways you have nourished my life.  Thank you for consciously creating yours.  Namaste.