Making December Magic! (Part 2)
Part 2: Reflect (freewriting prompts)
This is Part 2 of the Making December Magic series. Click here for Part 1.
Dear Enchantable community,
Welcome to Part 2 in the Making December Magic series! In Part 1, we remembered and reviewed. We took stock of the year, what happened, what went well, what didn’t. Today we will further reflect upon it. Whereas part 1 was mostly a list, in Part 2, we dive a little deeper.
Reflection is an invitation to slow down. For inspiration, I share with you the picture of this dreamy sloth who I met in Manuel Antonio Park here in Costa Rica, along with a favorite quote from my teacher Bayo Akomolafe.
Based on your list from part 1, reflect upon the year. You may want to just look over your list and start writing (this is what I did to start), or you could use some of the following prompts as inspiration. You don’t have to write about each one (this is not an assignment and will not be graded ;). Pick the ones that resonate/that you feel inspired to write about). Use them how you see fit. Most of all, enjoy the process!
Before you begin, you may want to revisit the recording from my end-of-semester reflection exercise (using January as your point of reference instead of the start of the semester), if you would like some guided visualization to start the process.
Looking back…
What was the year like? How did it feel?
How could you measure the year? (In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights in cups of coffee?)
How did you spend your time and energy? What did you practice?
What did you learn about yourself? About how you want to live?
How did you show up? For yourself? For your loved ones? For the causes and communities you care about?
What was heavy? Hardest? Most challenging?
What are you grieving/did you grieve? What did you lose?
What did you gain? (Friendships? Relationships? Jobs? Resources? Etc.)
What do you want to let go of? Leave behind? Not carry forward into the new year? Release?
What drained you?
What lit you up/filled you up/gave you life?
What lessons did you learn?
Where did you find pleasure and joy this year?
Present moment…
What are you grateful for?
Where do you feel resourced?
Where do you feel your own power?
What is supporting you? Where do you feel supported?
How are you feeling in this moment (mind-body-heart-energy-spirit) as the year end draws near?
Where are you satisfied in your life?
Looking forward…
What dreams do you want to carry forward, whether new dreams or ones that did not get realized this past year?
What do you want to experience more of? Less of?
What do you want to call in?
What questions are you carrying forward/living into?
What are your deepest desires for the new year? What do you most desire?
You could approach these questions in a number of different ways. If you need motivation to write, a great way to start is to choose a question and set a timer for a dedicated amount of time (such as ten minutes), and free write until the timer goes off. Alternatively, you could choose one or two questions a day to write about and sit with between now and the solstice or the end of the year. While many of these questions are similar, they are slightly different ways of looking at the year ahead and the year to come, so may unearth different responses. I would recommend not trying to answer all of these questions in one sitting, and rather pick one or a few, write, and come back to them over the next few weeks.
In the next step of the process, we will talk about choosing a word or theme for the year (past and future), and I will share with you a little about my word of this past year, ENCHANTMENT, and how much magic it brought to my year! Building on the last few reflection questions, we will also start to plot, scheme, and dream about our wishes, hopes, aspirations, and intentions for 2024 :)
Happy reflecting! And keep me posted on your process - I would love to hear about it!
With love,
Stephanie
P.S. If you enjoy these posts, please share with someone else who would enjoy them, too!
P.P.S. Leave a comment and let me know how your year-end process is going!