2020 has been a brutal year. We have encountered challenges beyond comprehension. We are weary. And there is much to celebrate!
We have shown great courage, resilience, and ingenuity. We have found ways to connect and thrive under the most stressful and uninviting circumstances. We have been asked to harness all of our resources. It may not have been pretty or perfect or the way we imagined it would be, but here we are on the precipice of a new year.
It is possible to acknowledge our pain, hurt, anguish, sorrow, loss, grief, trauma, and celebrate. We can celebrate even as we mourn, cry, scream, and rage. We have been holding on for so long, now is an opportunity to let go.
This is an invitation to celebrate!
The following exercises can help you release and rejoice in your life in this moment:
Movement Exercise
I invite you to DANCE!
I invite you to put on your favorite dance song, the one where you lose yourself and completely let go.
I invite you to shake, bounce, dance, groove, move in any way your body allows, listening to your body throughout to tap into movement that feels authentic.
I invite you to let go of the steps, the technique, the limitations.
I invite you to allow the music to move you all the way down to your bones, to radiate through every cell in your body.
I invite you to keep going until the very last note of the song.
Once the song ends, I invite you to stand with your arms along your sides, palms open and receptive. I invite you to notice all the sensations in your body.
I invite you to find gratitude in your heart for yourself for showing up to this moment.
Reflection Exercise
I invite you to find two pieces of paper or pages in a journal/notebook.
I invite you to take a comfortable seat, to allow your eyes to soften or perhaps close, and turn your attention inward.
I invite you to consider this year.
I invite you to choose a paper/page and write down anything and everything you are ready to let go of. You may be ready to let go of concrete things like unhealthy habits. You may be ready to let go of painful relationships. You may be ready to let go of old damaging ways of seeing yourself.
I invite you now to turn your attention to the new year.
I invite you to choose a new page/paper. I invite you to write down anything and everything you would like to welcome into your life. You may wish to welcome in new habits of body and mind that nourish you. You may wish to welcome in supportive relationships. You may wish to welcome in radical self-love.
Once your writing is complete, I invite you to engage in the following ritual:
As a symbol of releasing, I invite you to find a safe and meaningful way to destroy the page/paper with all you are ready to let go of. You may decide to safely burn your paper, put it through the shredder, rip it up, or cross it out.
As a symbol of welcoming, I invite you to find a powerful place to display the page/paper with all you are welcoming into your life. You may decide to hang it on your wall, make it your screen saver/wallpaper, or frame it. I invite you to display this writing somewhere you will see it daily so that it might inspire you as you enter this new year.
I hope these exercises help you celebrate this moment!
For more information about therapy with Eve, visit here.
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