A Fresh, New Approach To New Year’s Intentions
Each year for a while now I've been creating an end-of-year workbook to help you gain clarity as you move into the next season of your life.
I don't know about you, but I love taking stock like this, with a nice cup of something warming and the year before me, as yet undisturbed, like freshly fallen snow.
I hope you enjoy getting to spend this time with yourself.
From my intro letter in the workbook:
My hope is that the work you do in the Get Clear workbook will be an opportunity to plant seeds in the rich soil of your creativity so that the months ahead will be filled with a wild garden of ideas, inspiration, curiosity, and sweetness.
Perhaps this workbook is finding you at the tail end of 2021 and you're eager to leave this year behind and set intentions for 2022. Or, you might be exploring this work early in the new year...possibly already feeling adrift, not certain how to correct course. If you're well into your 2022, then this is a great way to take stock of where you're at and where you'd like to take yourself in the months ahead.
You'll notice a lot of plants in this workbook - that wasn't just to make it look pretty. Plants have been my best teachers this year. They've taught me to be patient and tender. To appreciate what the earth gives me, and consider ways I can give back. They've given me a strong sense of place - I'm growing roots in my new home, while also doing the work of reckoning with who this land was taken from. (I write this on Dakota and Anishinaabe Land, in what is now called Saint Paul in Mni Sota Makoce - Minnesota).
Plants have taught me mindfulness in a whole new way and through them I've come to a haiku practice that has brought something entirely fresh to the spiritual work of being a writer. As I've stumbled along many creative challenges this year, my plants have reminded me how important it is to lean toward the light and have patience - growth takes time. And sometimes there are spider mites. Those are annoying.
In this workbook you'll find lots of word explorations to help you reach for your own light so that you can grow, grow, grow. Print it out, grab pens and markers and sticky tabs and have at it. I've also included my writing cave sign-in sheet and (creative) flow tracking chart to help you set yourself up for a good writing practice this year.
My word for 2022 is INTEGRITY. What does it look like to live with integrity as a writer, in this planet's climate? How will I go about doing right by the miracle amidst massive upheavals in my country and around the world? What are things that are not in alignment with my integrity...and what changes will living within my integrity ask of me? And here's the biggie: how can I find joy, sanctuary, and ease amidst it all?
I suspect 2022 will be a demanding, enlightening teacher, and I hope to walk through its seasons with you, supporting in any way I can.
Here's to the next chapter of our story -
