Category: Living My Inspired Life

I Welcome You 2021

It’s time to say, “I welcome you 2021” with gusto!

Resolutions or Goals?

Resolutions suggest you need to change. Goals say, “I’m excited about my possibilities!” Will you join me in choosing goals?

Letting Go of the Past

My last post was about letting go of Thankful for 20192019 with gratitude. Perhaps you need to review that process. Basically, with thankfulness, we can more easily let go of past disappointment and pain. After all, there is nothing we can do about the past or the future.

Our best option is living in the moment.

Steps to Welcome 2021

First, ground yourself and take a few deep breaths. If you need a little more help on getting yourself grounded and ready for this welcome to 2021 exercise, review my article on saying goodbye to 2020.

Next, write a love letter to 2021. Include why you are excited to step into a new year, what you are ready to create, and the experiences, intentions, and goals for 2021. Simple, right?

If You Find This Difficult

Give yourself a break, literally and figuratively. This last year has been rough for everyone. Ease into 2021 with daily self-care rituals and lots of alone time for contemplation.

Reread the Steps to Welcome 2021 slowly. Write them out in a way that speaks to you. Restart your love letter to 2021 or start a new one. Be gentle with yourself.

Nope – I’m a Superstar at This

If you are feeling confident about your love letter to 2021, you might want to go a step further and create a place of honor for your letter. Surround it with  objects that make you smile. Draw beautiful symbols around the edges. You can also frame it. Use your intuition to create just the right place for your love letter.

Final Tips for Your Letter

Expounding on your letter, you could create a list of goals for 2021. Maybe you find 2, 5, 10, or even more goals in your letter. Go with your gut feeling or place your hand over your heart and breathe into your goal list. Listen. Feel. You will know when it is right. You will know when you have finished; when you have said, “I welcome you 2021” fully.

Finally, I want to thank Connie Chapman, my go-to life coach, for teaching me all about letting go and setting goals to live my inspired life. We all need support, mentors, and love on this journey called life.

A Bonus for You

I’m happy you have landed on my page and read my blog. Furthermore, if you sign-up for my newsletter, you will receive regular emails in your inbox where I share my articles and glimpses into my life.

Bravely moving into 2021,
Dawn

Say Goodbye To 2020 With Ease

Are you ready to say, “Goodbye 2020” with ease? It has certainly been a year to remember, or is it a year to forget?

A Dual Focus

As we near the end of 2020, there will be a bombardment of the highlights of the year. It seems there was both good and bad in past reviews in the media. Will that be true for 2020?

I’m proposing a different perspective to say “Goodbye 2020” with ease.

Rather than look at the headlines, consider looking inward to your personal experience. The duality of any year retrospective might be:

  1. What are you grateful for?
  2. What do you want to release?

I’ve done this before with Connie Chapman’s 21-day end of the year journaling class, but this time was so different.

Intention Within Ritual

Let’s get started:

  • Find a quiet place to be alone
  • Gather paper and pencil
  • Sit upright with your feet firmly planted on the floor
  • Close your eyes and place your hands atop your heart
  • Take 3 deep breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth
  • Say, “I am ready to remember all the good and release all the pain of 2020.”

Open your eyes. Now we begin the actual process by writing a love letter to 2020.

  • Start your letter with “Dear 2020,”
  • Now write out everything you give thanks for during 2020
  • Next express everything you want to let go of from 2020
  • Include anything you wish to complete before 2021
  • Sign your letter as you would any other love letter

Take your time with this exercise. Close your eyes and wait for the words to come.

What if You Get Stuck?

If closing your eyes doesn’t help, perhaps you need a few hours or a few days of self care. Yes… you are worth it. You can refer to my article on self care for some ideas.

Don’t give up on this. Remember that small steps result in big change over time. If you can come up with only one thing to give thanks for during 2020, that is your first step.  It’s okay. Then go to the next step. Perhaps you’ll find ten things to let go of from 2020. It’s okay.

How Did That Feel?

For me, writing the thank you list felt like I was filling my body with sweet gratitude. Then writing the releasing portion, I felt the energy of each declaration physically leave my body. Some were much more intense than others.

There is a ritual I added to say goodbye to 2020 with ease. I tore the letter up, cleansed my area with sage and burned the pieces of my letter safely in a flameproof bowl. To prevent burning my fingers, I used a long butane lighter. Sitting at the breakfast bar didn’t seem right at first. Quickly, I turned away thoughts and focused on feelings. The burning ritual felt peaceful; no anxiety, no joy, just neutral.

Although not optimal, the breakfast bar was good enough.
I am good enough.
You are good enough.

What About 2021?

As you might have guessed, there is another ritual to help prepare for the new year, 2021. Rather than start a second ritual right now, let’s sit with this one a few days.

As always, I invite you to comment below. If you want to be sure to get all my articles, please sign-up for my newsletter

Preparing for a new year,
Dawn

Three Ways Values Affect Your Life

I have found three ways values affect your life; relationships, career, home environment. When these areas are in alignment with your personal values, happiness comes naturally.

Since we are each unique, you may find different areas of your life play a more prominent role in your happiness. These areas may change naturally over time.

Relationships

Personal relationships run the gamut of family, friends, lovers, spouses, like-minded people (your tribe), and co-workers. Have you found yourself observing personalities? Maybe you like those that exhibit your value system more than those that don’t. Actually, this seems intuitively obvious.

Do you get along with one parent more than the other? Perhaps it is because you share values with one parent and not the other.

Then why do we end up with partners that don’t last? There are undoubtedly many reasons. For me, however, my values played a key role.

Career

A long time ago, fifty years to be exact, I took the Air Force Career Test in high school. The results suggested your best careers. It was an extensive personality test. I remember my results clearly; attorney or psychologist were high on the list.

Psychologist was understandable to me as people tended to naturally open up to me. I listened, cared, and promptly forgot whatever they said.

Conversely, attorney, didn’t appeal to me at all. I understood the research might appeal, but even at age 16, I suspected dishonesty was part of their job.

What about your current career? Are you happy, discontent, or desperately looking for a change?

Home Environment

Although I’m using home environment, any environment can be substituted here; work, transportation, workout area, even the great outdoors.

Where do you feel most comfortable? Does dust drive you crazy? Is there comfort in having many cherished items on display? Rather, do you find simplicity more pleasing? These are some of the ways your values are reflected in your environment. If you have control in your home environment, you will choose what makes you happy, that is, comfortable.

Examples

My personal values are honesty, tranquility, and purpose. If you search online for personal values, these don’t usually come up. Rather a list of 10-25 values that are sometimes hard to even understand emerge.

Here is an interesting article that lists 25 values. One of my three is on it. While the questions they ask are good, don’t get distracted quite yet.

Back to my example. Here are three ways my values show up in everyday life:

  1. In fifty years of driving, I have never received a speeding ticket, because my value of Honesty helps me know what the speed limit is so I don’t exceed it.
  2. Tranquility surrounded me in a home as I prepared to move, with essential furniture, bare walls, and bare floors.
  3. Life gets pretty busy for me, yet I am committed to writing this blog weekly as it partially fulfills my value of Purpose by helping you take small steps toward a life of fulfillment.

Finding Your Personal Values

While researching this blog, the destiny of my purpose brought me an incredible, free resource to help you determine your own personal values. I took the evaluation and found it to be spot on. Furthermore, you can take it many times as your life evolves.

Life Values Inventory

I would love to hear your three ways values affect your life and how it evolves. Please comment below, send me an email or signup for my newsletter for a weekly opportunity to connect.

With honesty, tranquility, and purpose,
Dawn