End the Old Year with Gratitude and Bless the New Year with This Simple Journal Ritual for Your Best Year Yet
What you focus on expands.
So, simply by taking a moment to assess your wins, congratulate yourself for your progress, and get in touch with a deep sense of gratitude for the blessings we experienced in the past year, you will magically infuse the coming year with avalanches of wealth, victorious windfalls, and positive conditions of all kinds.
With that in mind, grab a notebook and respond to the following prompts.
Thinking back on the past year…
1. List 5 personal victories – big or small – that you experienced.
Examples: I got physically stronger, I recycled more, I created more art…
2. List 5 precious, priceless gifts that you received from others or from the Universe.
Examples: my trip to Hawaii, spending time with my partner, an afternoon vision of sunlight dancing on the lake…
3. List 5 challenges that you faced and the valuable lessons you learned from them.
Examples: I faced the death of my beloved pet. I learned how to appreciate the present moment and love my still-living family and companions deeply, to get in touch with my emotions, and how to be strong in a crisis.
4. Set a timer for 2 minutes, and during that time brainstorm as many things as possible that you are grateful for in your life. It doesn’t matter how small or how large.
Examples: the amount of money I do have, the roof over my head, my cozy slippers, the food in my cupboard, my friends, my family, my opportunities, my talents, laughter, books, poetry, the sun, the moon, the Star Wars trilogy…
Now, put your journal down and complete the following.
5. Feel gratitude.
Put on some relaxing music, light a candle and perhaps some incense, and sit comfortably with your spine straight. Place your right hand over your heart and your left hand over it. Close your eyes, and conjure up all the gratitude you possibly can. Marvel at your good fortune, and at the good fortune you experienced in the past year. Relax into this feeling.
6. Welcome in the amazing New Year.
Open your arms to the sky, arms angling out, palms facing up. With your eyes still closed, slightly tilt your head up so that your face is gently angled toward the sky. Revel in this gesture of welcoming in even greater blessings for the year ahead. Visualize very bright golden/white/rainbow light streaming down from above. Receive it gratefully and with an open heart. Let it swirl around you and surround you.
Know in your heart that this really will be your best year yet, and give thanks.
Brightest blessings in the New Year!
For even more magic in the year ahead, check out these 12 Ways to Deepen Your Magical Practice in the New Year.
This is a lovely idea, Tess! Thank you! Many Blessings to you in the coming year!
Thank you so much, Barb! Many blessings to you too!
Love it!
my NYEve was much like this…minus the "homework" lol…it involved peace…the stars thru the forest trees and a huge gratitude for making it thru 2010 with the remainder of my sanity and a sense of calm and great expectation for 2011
Bright Blessings
Thank you Tess for sharing this simple but great idea for gratitude meditation <3
Ivelina
Thank you so very much for posting this! this has been very invigorating and goes along with the other inner work programs that i am working on. Blessings and light!
beautiful…I look back at 10 with trepidation. I hated most minutes of it. However, this has shown me what i've learned, what Im grateful I learned and that there were some beautiful and wonderful things that happened. If those things can happen during such a bad year, imagine what can happen in a good one! like 11 ! Lovin' 11!
Peace
Thank you so much, after a terrible 2010, with many of my family affected by illness, i found it hard at first to find something to be thankfull for, but this ritual really works, and I've realised how blessed I am with what I have got, how lucky I am to be loved, and fortunate in having learnt many lessons and got answers and sudden realizations of why things happened when they did, I look forward to 2011 taking me further along this path of understanding.
this makes me feel beautiful. thank you.
Oh I am overjoyed that so many of you found this post to be helpful and inspiring! Thank you so much for the kind words, and for reading. I am very grateful! Many blessings to all in the year ahead.
Can't wait to do this ritual for 2011!
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it. And it's almost your year (the year of the Dragon)!
This looks like an excellent habit to develop every year. Especially in such a difficult year that has been 2011, I think it's important we recognize every part of it, good and bad, difficult and easy. It's way too easy to look back and say, "Welp, that year just sucked. Let's move on". The universe doesn't hand out gifts freely. My belief is that if you don't
acknowledge the gifts you are given, you won't get many more in the future.
Thanks for all your inspiration, Tess
Thanks for the encouragement, Nashvlnic, and for reminding me of this post! Might be a good time to post it again. Many blessings to you in the new year!
Thank you for what you said…
Thank you for this, Tess. I did this last year, it was very powerful. I have just looked it up again, so that I can do it again this year. xxx
Yay, Ola! Happy to hear it. That reminds me – I think I'll post this again. Many holiday blessings to you!