Category: Living My Inspired Life

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

My Week of Clarity Emerges

This message about my week of clarity received inspiration from the weekly newsletter I receive from Dan Blank, founder of We Grow Media. His email arrived just as I opened my Gmail app with the subject, “Finding creative clarity”.

I immediately thought, “He’s writing about our collaborative journey.”

My Week of Clarity

Early in the past week, Dan and I had our first conversation in a one-on-one working relationship. We could have started with an easy task, like improving my bio. Rather, I chose to work on my mission, my reason for writing, my ‘why’. After all, isn’t that basic for any decision, project, or life path? And isn’t this week of clarity essential to my writing process? Yes to both questions.

After I read Dan’s newsletter subject, my gaze fell on the pile of clean clothes on my dining table. It jumped out as a metaphor of my jumbled thoughts. Before I could start my day, this anxiety around the laundry needed attention.

Many Paths to Clarity

I find menial tasks with my hands allow ideas to flow. Some of my favorite tasks for this are pulling weeds, folding clothes, or washing dishes. Doesn’t this scene feel calmer, clearer, and fulfilling? It’s not perfect, but it is closer to clarity.

Clarity emerges

Furthermore, for me, it is so helpful talking to just one person about ideas. The physical act of speech often brings about clarity by honing my jumble of thoughts into a single line of realization.

Finally, reading about Dan’s Clarity Cards, I remember the first time I was exposed to this process. It seemed so daunting. In contrast, today I feel I can wrap my head around this, creating order out of chaos.

The Message for You

Every person is unique. While we have different paths or different ways of understanding, we can act on nuggets of information, finding our own clarity, one step at a time. If you found anything in this blog that speaks to your heart, please let me know in the comments.

Feeling calmer,
Dawn

Like this article? Sign-up for my newsletter and you won’t miss a post or announcement!