New Year Intentions on the Lunar New Year

I feel like it's still acceptable to say happy new year, right? 

The end of 2024 and transition into 2025 didn't go as I had planned. I injured my foot and was on crutches while in Florida for the holidays. I was angry and sad and frustrated that this was how I was spending my week when all I wanted to do was swim in the ocean and take in the warm weather before I went back to wintry and sometimes foggy San Francisco. 

I've spent much of the start of this year hobbling around and healing my foot. I've felt behind and delayed in intention setting or even looking ahead at what is planned for this year. I feel this anxiety creeping up, feeling like I'm always catching up, out of breath, falling behind even more than I already felt. 

It can feel like a lot of pressure to start the year off strong. To have goals and a pretty, decorative vision board. To have your word for the year. To feel that sense of renewal that comes with new beginnings. 

But we are still in the middle of winter. As I've shifted away from the traditional, societal expectations of a calendar to a perspective that is in more in tune with the cycles of nature, it's given me space and grace to recognize that there is no rush, I'm not falling behind. What if I'm actually right on time. What if this time isn't about creating some big goals for the year, but instead about being in stillness, resting, gathering my energy for the Spring and Summer months. It is in these times of rest that we can create our vision for the future. 

So if you've been feeling like me, feeling behind and just not quite up to speed with the goal setting, visioning, new years intentions…This is your permission slip that it is OKAY. You can take your own damn time. No one is clocking your mileage or tracking what you're doing. Only you are. 

Take a deep breath..In…and….out. Let it go. 

I write this to you on the Lunar New Year, the mark of the beginning of the new year based on the lunar (moon) calendar, which is celebrated in most Asian countries and cultures. This is the year of the snake, a sign of shedding what doesn't serve you in order to transform your life from the inside out. It's also the New Moon in Aquarius, the astrological sign that represents innovation and unconventional ways of being. 

This is the perfect time to set your intention for the year. To begin again. To set down the past and walk into your future. This New Moon invites us to be curious and invite in possibility into our lives. To set down the past. It invites us to bring mindful awareness to how we're showing up and be courageous in how we want to show up in our lives. This timing is inviting us to look at the areas of our life that need to be radically transformed and look at how we're being asked to evolve and grow. 

I've shared a few reflection questions and a ritual I've used during my women's circles and for myself on the new moon. I hope you enjoy and it serves you. 

I hope that you take a moment to pause and intentionally transition into this new year with ease and radical self-love. I'd love to hear how this new moon reflection and intention setting goes for you. 

Happy New Moon and Happy New (Lunar) New Year!