A Ritual For New Years
My News Years ritual is usually off the grid alone in a cold cabin in the woods.
But I think I’ve had enough solitude in 2020. This year I’ll be together with my girlfriend doing “normal” things like drinking champagne, cooking tacos, and playing games. We started dating this year through lockdowns, shutdowns, and distance - a reminder that there are real roses worth celebrating amongst the thorns.
Sometimes we use the repetition of ritual to anchor us as the world changes: sometimes we purposefully adapt our rituals to help us contact the reality of what’s changing.
For me, this is a year of adaptation. What is your body telling you that you need in this moment? Here’s a few ideas to spark your creativity:
Get fancy - break out the suit or dress languishing in your closet
Reflect and set intentions - yearcompass is a phenomenal free guide and framework
Clean - reset your space, get into those hard to reach corners, use sage or palo santo to clear our stagnant energy
Journal - thiesolationjournals will send you a special new years prompt for the first 10 days of January
Salt - put a pinch of salt in your champagne (salt has been used as a symbol of purification and longevity in many cultures // or a riff on the ritual of dipping parsley in salt water on Passover to mix joy with tears)
Shake it out - the tension from this past year lives in your body; do 5 minutes of some dynamic meditation so you don’t carry it into the next (especially if you’re alone and no one’s watching)
How do you hold the immeasurable losses of 2020 together with all its moments of beauty and discovery & the relief of making it through & the reality of it not actually being over & the hope for a better year & the total uncertainty of what's ahead?
Moment of Silence
For the last minute before midnight, hold your breath.
Pure celebration doesn't feel right this year. Let's close this year with a collective moment of silence and stillness for all that we've lost.
This will be hard and uncomfortable and will feel like it lasts forever - just like 2020. Notice the familiar feeling of tension, suspension, and fear in your body.
2. Take A Big Breath
At midnight, take a big giant gasp of air.
You did it. You made it. You are here, now.
Notice how all that fear releases when you breathe again. No matter what 2021 throws at you, remembering to breathe will help. Remembering you can breathe, and being grateful for that, will help too.
3. Go Nuts
For the first minute of 2021, clap and cheer and scream and shout and bang some pots and pans.
It can feel so freeing to scream. Open your windows and let your neighbors hear you, a throwback to the ritual of cheering for essential workers at 7pm. We're here today because of them.
There are so many people to be grateful for, and so many moments worth cheering - big and small. 2020 wasn't all bad. 2021 won't be either.
