Authors & Thought Leaders

Visualizing Your New Life in the New Year

Published on January 1, 2018

Article by Cassandra Bodzak

It happens to the best of us. Each year around the holidays, we start letting our brains go wild with new resolutions for the upcoming year: “I’m finally going to stop drinking three cups of coffee a day. I’m going to yoga four times a week. I’m definitely going to start that business I’ve been talking about,” and on and on our goals go. Something about the start of a fresh new year is like the first blank page of a 365-page book, and now we feel like we can do it all over and get it “right” this time.

Embrace Last Year as You Look Toward the New Year

Well first, let me tell you that you didn’t do anything wrong last year. It was perfectly imperfect and just what you needed. You learned exactly what you needed to and you are now in this new place, with new options, and you can start another beautifully flawed year of existence. Let the rest go and stop beating yourself up for anything you didn’t accomplish last year. Allow the possibility of knowing that maybe it just wasn’t the time for that yet. Deeply, truly, release any so-called failures that are looming over 2017 because you’re not bringing that energy into this fresh and sparkly new year!

Resolutions Are Out, Visualizations Are In

This year, instead of writing a laundry list of resolutions, let me suggest that you do things a little differently: Take a minute and simply visualize the YOU you want to be in 2018. That’s right, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and imagine yourself waking up six months into 2018. How do you feel? Are you waking up well rested and excited to face the day? Does your morning routine involve hitting the gym or walking over to your sacred space to meditate?

Walk yourself through your day. What kind of food are you fueling your body with? What does your job situation look like? Are you working from home, seeing clients, going into an office? Allow your imagination to wander, this is YOUR 2018 and you can create it anyway you want, so don’t limit your vision. Take yourself all the way into the evening. Are you seeing friends or going out with a romantic partner? Get specific in each scenario and really let yourself soak up what each event feels like.

Focus on how it all feels. Allow a wave of gratitude to wash over you for how wonderful it all is.

What does it feel like to have that job? To wake up in the morning and go to yoga or meditate first thing? How does it feel to have that supportive romantic partner? Marinate in the feeling, get it into your cells.

And now the game-changer.

Make Visualization a Daily Practice

Pledge to do this visualization every morning in 2018. Forget about resolutions and get in touch with the best version of you every single day. Sound extreme? I started this practice five years ago and every year I am blown away about how my life has expanded to meet my vision for it over and over again. I believe in this exercise so much that I have all of my mentorship clients doing it from the first time we meet. Take the time each day to sit in this vision for yourself, hold that space for you to show up as your highest self, and I promise you, your 2018 will be far beyond your expectations. You will be unconsciously setting the stage for you to rise to the occasion and reach a new level in your life. Do it now, thank me later.

Here Are a Few More of Our Favorite Intention-Setting Tools

Journals

Candles: Bodhi Tree Signature-Scented Candle

Crystals: Clear Quartz Point Crystal for all intentions

Books: Eat with Intention: Recipes and Meditations for a Life that Lights You Up

Eat With Intention

Published on: January 1, 2018

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