LoVita

I’ve often wondered why we wait till the new year begins to identify our resolutions? Perhaps there is something final about the end of the year that instills either fear or motivation to try harder – at least in January – to become the person we aspire to be and set our yearly goals.

Personally, I find it more inspiring to take a Reflection Retreat sometime near my birthday in April as a way to check in with myself and set goals that I want to work on and achieve for the next 12 months.

The idea behind setting New Year Resolutions and a Reflection Retreat is the same: working towards something you want to achieve. However, by putting all the responsibility of setting goals to happen around or before the New Year we create a motivation trap, making it harder to accept and realize that goal setting can happen at any time.

But a Reflection Retreat is more than just goal setting, it’s taking time out to intentionally check in (by journaling, meditating, taking a nature walk, etc.) to examine what happened last year, and then using those insights to set your intentions for the next year.

I normally go for a 3/4 day overnight trip; somewhere secluded and in nature as a way to disconnect from the demands of daily life. But if this isn’t possible for you, you can still benefit from following an unraveling practice.

An unraveling practice asks you to think about / journal what happened during the year that just passed: what changes did you welcome, what did you let go of, what did you discover, what do you wish you had less of, etc.

Once you’ve done that, you set your intention for the next year: identify what’s your word for the year, how will you embody it, what parts of you will you nurture, etc. This in turn informs the more specific goals that you will create to align with your intentions for the year.

I personally love Susan Conway’s book as my guide as I unravel the year behind and get ready to prep for my year ahead. Regardless of using a formal workbook, or simply journaling in the margins of a paper – the act of checking in on what has happened and then choosing your way forward is what makes a Reflection Retreat an incredibly powerful ritual.

Yes, you can leverage this practice as you work to identify your New Year Resolutions to meet that January deadline – or you can leverage this practice later in the year like I do and simply enjoy the holidays instead!