Set your intentions for 2023, and start making your dreams come true!
Commit to a year of love letters to yourself.
A list of resolutions leaves no room for a change of heart, in direction, or in life’s path for us. It doesn’t allow space for destiny’s curveballs thrown our way to help us along our journey towards our most authentic self. We give ourselves these deadlines, and the pressure they create can be disheartening!
Love letters to yourself sounds a little softer. Make your New Year about writing lots of little love letters to yourself, choosing instead to focus on how you can welcome fabulousness into your life. Set goals, ambitions, wish lists, and think happy thoughts.
Yoga is good for your soul.
Yoga starts out for many of us as a physical practice, and if we are dedicated enough, this transitions into a way of life. This shift in perspective can be life-changing—it reminds us that we are the captains of our own ships and that we have all the tools we need to become our most authentic self.
While it feels exhausting to come to your mat sometimes, the result is always the same: sheer bliss and a soul filled with self-love, serenity, and happiness.
We all have dreams that we would like to one day being to reality. Yoga prepares us for this journey of realizing our goals by teaching us flexibility in body, mind and heart. As James Dean once said “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust the sails to always reach my destination.”
And so, with the mental and physical practice of yoga as our foundation, here are my steps to manifest fabulousness in the new year.
1. Practice gratitude for what you have right now.
Find a glass jar, some colorful pens, and some pieces of paper into small strips. Write down on each piece of paper something you are grateful for, or something that made you smile today, and put it inside the jar!
Do this every day; it’s your very own reminder of amazing things in your life, which you can come back to whenever you need a pick-me-up!
2. Build on your gratitude and share your happiness.
When you have happiness, you have everything! And as you know, happiness is an inside job. Make a point of doing at least one thing a day that makes you happy. Then share that happiness with those around you—friends, family, partner or spouse, colleagues, or whoever crosses your path that day.
Happiness is contagious, and sharing becomes compassion.
3. Think and be positive.
Welcome 2023 into your world with energy and enthusiasm just as you would an old friend who has just returned from traveling around the world. Think about how you shape your words, thoughts, and feelings, and notice where you allow negativity or self-doubt to creep in.
Be aware of what form or disguise it takes, sit with it, and then rearrange the words until they are positive affirmations: things that will help you to grow and evolve.
4. Create your own pressure-free bucket list.
Allow space for your dreams to become real in 2023. Make a dream board, or if traveling is your goal, then buy a map of the world and pin it up somewhere you will see it every morning when you wake up and just before you fall asleep.
Use colors, pictures, photos, stickers—make it sparkle and come alive! By writing your dreams down, you are putting them out there and inviting the universe to take notice and start helping you on your fabulous journey!
Remember, YOU have the power to live the life you LOVE. Manifest, manifest, manifest!
5. Practice letting go.
The power of letting go is fabulous yet and so powerful. How can you fill yourself up with happiness when you are weighed down with negative junk? To be open to new experiences in life, you need to make space for them!
Try this: imagine holding one negative thought, self-judgment, or whatever is holding you back, in your fist. Visualize standing on a bridge with a river running freely beneath you, the water rushing away into the distance. Open your hand over the edge of the bridge and release that negative energy.
Watch it float away. Breathe. Smile. You are free!
6. Roll out your yoga mat and invite Yin yoga to the party.
Yin is a beautifully delicious practice that helps us heal both our heart and our mind. It’s like a daily shot of self-love: a celebration of how wonderful you are!
It provides a safe place for you to gain greater personal growth through a meditative and blissful experience once you open yourself up to the vastness within yourself. Even better than that is the dreamy afterglow where you find that moment of absolute peace with yourself.
7. Invite meditation along, too.
As we introduce our gratitude practice, happiness, bucket lists, the art of letting go, and following our dreams, we are creating space within. When we meditate, we welcome stillness, peace, serenity, calmness, and positivity to fill that space.
We take time to get closer to our true selves, to better understand ourselves, and to move in the direction that truly makes us come alive.
Life is for living, so throw caution to the wind and go make things happen!
