Practical tasks and end of year rituals to close out the year

In the lead-up to December, we've been in hermit mode, being in a cocoon and if you're feeling that way too you're not alone. 

We're here to encourage you to carve out time for yourself to introduce a new ritual or take up a new hobby - something you're truly wanting to do to nourish yourself. Pottery? A puzzle? Sewing? Something you don't usually have time for during the year. 

We also talk about not running around putting out all of your client's fires because you'll never get to them all, prioritize your own business first.

You can find Ané and Stacey on Instagram at:
Ané - @ane.mgmnt
✦ https://www.instagram.com/mgmnt__/
https://msha.ke/anemgmnt

Stacey - @barefootbranding
✦ instagram.com/barefootbranding
🌐 barefootbranding.academy
https://barefootbranding.academy/eyes-above-waitlist/

Visit us here: 🌐 trustingtheuniverseandshit.com
Email us: 📩 hello@trustingtheuniverseandshit.com

Intro music by Tyler Dixon from @tones.on.toast - tonesontoast.com

Transcript

Stacey: 0:00

just see if you can carve out a little bit of time for yourself and not just rush through the whole period without. one of the activities that we suggest.

Ane: 0:09

you do it intentionally for yourself. You're not doing it because you're friends. drag you or this is because of the events you're truly wanting to do it for yourself. I think even that in itself is setting your energetic body up for what you want to have next year.

Stacey: 0:47

Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode 24. Welcome to December end of the year. You're probably hearing this around Christmas, so I hope that you're having a really nice break. Or if you're working, some time out.

Ane: 1:03

Hello. I'm really excited for today's Yeah, especially around this time of the year. And yeah, I really hope that you guys are enjoying your Christmas break and being with family and friends. And remember if there's triggering moments, just listen to episodes. We talk about all about grounding. We talk about how to set boundaries. It's just, if you just need that little bit of. inspiration to drop out. of that maybe contraction that you may feel if there's been some family drama or friends drama. Cause it's very, it's inevitable, right? Like it does happen to all of us. But Yeah. welcome for today for today's episode.

Stacey: 1:43

Yeah. Just remember this too. Shall pass. If you need to repeat that mantra to yourself, because these states are only temporary. So, yeah. So today we wanted to talk about. Coming into the new year. What can we do in December? What practical things can we do in December to wrap the year up to reflect on the year that was to think about what are the things that. We did, we hit our goals. Did we? I get what we wanted, because if we didn't have goals for the year, and when you think back to the year, sometimes we say to ourselves, What did I do this year? And that usually comes from that place of not knowing what you set out to achieve at the side of the year. So, this is a great time to sort of stop decluttering and clearing and assessing. And reflecting.

Ane: 2:35

that you brought this up because literally this morning I. We had an inspection for the house, just someone just to take photos, make sure maintenance is all good. And as I was like, just putting the usual stuff away, I just started more decluttering and more cleaning up like things that are usually on the bench. I was like, no, this can actually go in the cupboards. Like it was just this yeah, like act for me to just declutter. So I love that we're going to talk about it today. I think it, it taught myself to start doing that. Like, if I feel this intuitive pull, sometimes I'll just like avoid it or I'll be like, I need, I have to do X, Y, And Z still. Like, I got to do other work that's doing the quotation more important, but not really, right? Because in that moment I really wanted to do clutter and I did it. So, yeah, I love the segue that we're going to talk about how. Yeah, reflecting a bit like how the year was and what we want to maybe do differently next year. So, yeah.

Stacey: 3:32

And we also wanted to talk about being in hermit, married this time a month as well. Because. I think a lot of people have told me as well that they feel like they've been in hermit mode. And I think I have as well in a lot of ways. And I think. I'm a mode is just something that. That I've been feeling, and it's not necessarily to have that. I haven't been working a lot and doing a ton and creating a lot of courses and creating all these different pieces for my business. But, yeah, I think it's just this reflection mode. This reflection mode as the year comes to a close and as we start to think back, And we say to ourselves, okay, will. What do I want my next year to look like, what do I want to leave behind? And what do I want to bring with me into the new year? Because it's a time for severing. Some of those things that we really don't want to do. So one thing that you can do is you can write down a list of things that you really want to stop doing in the new year. This might be a new service, a service that you provide in your business. It could be something that you just generally. don't like doing. And start to think really clearly about what you do and don't want to be doing. And, but so even if you do have to continue doing them for your income, Knowing in the back of your mind that you're transitioning out of those things. So that you're just being

Ane: 5:00

Hmm. Yeah, I love that. I think a key word is intentionality. like being very intentional with, Yeah. what you want to leave behind and what you want to bring into the new year. And just to touch base on the hermit mode. The first time I heard hermit was like very much. Like, on the couch, watching Netflix all day, like, windows shut,

Stacey: 5:27

Draw the

Ane: 5:28

like a little, yeah yeah very like, in my cocoon. Don't talk to anyone, don't do anything, like, truthfully that's what I first thought about Hermit. But, as it came up a lot for me this year too, and it is a tarot card if, some of the listeners don't know, but Actually, what home mode just means is, and this is my interpretation, I'm sure everyone's gonna have their own beautiful interpretation, but it truly is like what Stace says, it doesn't mean I'm not working, it doesn't mean that I'm not doing the things I need to do or whatever, but it's just like this internal embodiment that I'm feeling, I'm feeling more internal with how I wanna, my day to day, and what I mean by that is, I'm not gonna go and look at my first, my phone first thing in the morning, or I'm not gonna Go and, do all these things socially. It's, it's just being more internal with my own energy, my own space. And again, this doesn't mean I'm not working, doesn't mean I'm not doing But so, when I've accepted that hermit mode means it's not a sense of laziness or it's not a sense of not doing anything. Gosh, it just softens so much more to be in hermit mode and it actually serves me better. Because I felt like when I was feeling really her in my her hermit se like, process. That's a tongue when I felt like I was more in my hermit I would really resist it because I'm like I'm gonna be lazy I'm not gonna get things done and no no no no it's actually not anything to do with that in fact I feel like I get bored on because I'm in my own energy because I'm in more internal so on that note if you're feeling similar it probably just means that you're in a similar situation and you just you and it's a tricky one right because of Where, this is the silly season, this is the time to socialise, see family, see friends. But it's also okay to honour it, hey, I'm gonna have a day for myself, I'm gonna have a couple hours for myself. And setting those boundaries, like we've So, yeah, it comes in waves, I feel, with the Hermit mode. Like, it's not always you're gonna be in that, stuck there So, yeah.

Stacey: 7:35

Yep. I think I pulled the word out from what you were saying. The keyword is embodiment. So. Embodiment. think means for me. How am I distilling everything that's coming into my world. Am I distilling it in a way where I feel jittery, anxious. Do I feel. Heightened state. I think this home at married is, is like this. Slowing down all like. Sliding down into this. Feeling of actually.

Ane: 8:10

It is.

Stacey: 8:12

But yeah, it just it's. Yeah. It's, it's not as if I haven't been socializing. But it's, it's just this feeling of. Okay. So I think I'll, I'll explain it in all the Tara cards that I keep getting for myself. So I keep returning, I did this full 10 card spread for myself. And there are these four that keep coming up and each one says something to the effect of. Okay. Just think through all the things that you're doing before you do them. So he kept telling me over and over again. things really. nOt clearly, but think about them. Really intentionally before you go and do them, don't just like rush off into your day. In a frantic state really think it through and think through. Are these your most important tasks? I think that was the general theme. And I think just thinking through that, I've been able to see that even some of my client work, I can see that they have their stresses and they're very, they want it done. They want it done. They want it done. But., ultimately for my own business, there are certain things I really need to do first before I put out all their fires as they come up. Because, after like 10 years, you start to realize those fires will never all be put out ever.

Ane: 9:28

Mm,

Stacey: 9:28

isn't going to grow. And ultimately for this life, you really want yourself to be in a position where you can take care of your family, take care of yourself. You'd have the relationships that you desire. And if you're constantly putting out everybody else's fires all the time. You're never going to get to a position where you've put yourself first and you've put yourself. In a place where you're building your business.

Ane: 9:51

Mm, mm, Yeah. I love that and I think, I love that you said about the fires and putting it out because you're it's we get into these heightened states, especially being a client or if you have clients of getting things done and then obviously as a service base. business, we want to be able to provide and find the solution, right? But you're right, like at the end of the day, and it's just a huge learning. And I love that we're kind of reflecting right now because it's exactly what we were gonna, we wanted to talk about, but it is, it was a huge learning for me this year was to put my business on the side or my health or my wellness on the side because I want to help. Provide that solution for my clients and time and time every time when I put them first, I either get sick, get, go to burnout, I either, business has declined in some, and it's just a learning, it's just a lesson, okay, I need to center myself back into my business, center myself back into my business, and maybe as I'm like, maybe as we're reflecting, That is the the purpose of the Hermit, like, bringing ourselves back internally and bringing ourselves back intentionally. Of slower working, of putting our wellness and health first, right, rather than everyone else. So, Yeah. that's just a food for I do agree, Like they're never gonna end the fires, they really aren't. The first thing that we can do and to be of service is to make sure we've provided what we need to provide for our business and our health and our wellness before we get to those, those fires, essentially.

Stacey: 11:25

Like they could be a hundred thousand years of lifetime's worth of you putting out other people's fires. There are going to be unlimited. Via. So even if you're in your first business year and you're thinking these are the most important tasks in my business, putting out my clients, buyers, I can tell you now, That it's not, that's not the work that you should be doing. To create a sustainable business. That's going to support you in the long term. I know, it seems like. That it is that in the moment. And I always call it the squeaky wheel. So the squeaky wheel always gets the oil, right? So the squeaky wheel it's, it's loud. It's noisy, but. It's not actually. The thing that needs the most attention, usually

Ane: 12:10

Yeah, for sure. And I've noticed even And just those conversations, setting those boundaries Hey this, X, Y, and Z, we're not get done by the end of the week, if that's what they desire and just having a conversation and nine times out of 10, they they receive that well and they respond well. And they actually, Whether it's subconsciously or not, respect that you've put on a boundary or a better timeline for them, right? Because they know that you're going to probably do a better job as well, right? Like the service is actually going to be done better than if you had to rush it in like 24 hours And on that note, actually, when it comes to reflecting for year ahead About the year that we just had and I spoke about this briefly on like a live was like rating the different areas in your life. And this is like a really quick, easy fire practice that we can do. Cause I know a lot of us are going to be like really busy with family or friends or whatever. And again, we're going to use the excuse that we're too busy, but we do like highly suggest you try to, yeah, take, take some initiative into these. Reflection moments because they do really support you and are beneficial in the long term, but essentially like we've talked about the circle of life and all the things with the different genres in life. So, relationships, even like love and sex if you want you can do friendships, you can, whatever, you can just have all of them. And then you just rate it from one to 10, one to five, how it's going, And if it's less than a couple of numbers to like one, which obviously is like no no good, like really need support in this or whatever, then, you know, now, okay, this is the next. Yeah, that I really want to focus on these areas in life. And it's just a really quick fire way to, yeah, just, just audit your life and self inquiry about how it's going without journaling for hours or taking hours to do so.

Stacey: 14:09

Yes. Yep. Yeah. I'm not a journaling for hours type of person. I kinda get frustrated. Like I feel like it's taking too long. So, yeah. I'll like if I'm typing. I feel like I can get that done, but I don't really have a system set in place to journal on my computer. So yeah. I, I totally understand that. So I'm mostly like the only time I really write. Is I'll do one letter once a year at the end of the year, like a reflections, a yearly reflections. And I'll just think through the most significant moments of the year and think back upon what I'd done for the year. So. In years from now, from now, I can open up my letters. Maybe I'm like 80, I don't know, open up my letters and I look back on my life and I have this little, little, little mini record. Of oh, okay. Cause I don't journal. So I'll only really have these yearly reflections and that can be helpful too, to reflect and to mirror your cell phone. Maybe you didn't even realize how much you did this year. Maybe you did more than you thought. And then like, even I think. We started this focus early in July, I think June, July this year, but it feels like it's been a lot longer than that already

Ane: 15:19

Yeah. And how cool to like. Reflect back onto that and think, gosh, it feels like it's been years and yet only been six months. And who knows where we're going to be in the next six to, you know, six months to years Which is really fun. It's really expansive to feel that way. And as you were speaking, I think, like I just said, I think this is the point of being in hermit mode. Like, yes, we have our actions and things that we have to take. But perhaps the whole point that we feel like we want to go internal is to reflect, is to look into the things of, every, every morning, instead of like texting your friends or whatever, you just want to like, yeah, like you just want to think about all of the things that you actually achieved this year, which is awesome, or all the things that really hold you back, what fears came up, and it's just like this yeah, mode of reflection that you want to be in.

Stacey: 16:07

Yeah. And like We keep saying, if you're really busy with family, Just see if you can carve out a little bit of time for yourself and not just rush through the whole period without. one of the activities that we suggest. So whether that's. Creating a vision board, whether that's reflecting on your year in a letter, whether that's doing and self audit and assessing all the different pie pieces of your life and saying. Where am I on a scale from zero to 10? Whether it's maybe what else could we, what else could you do this? You might even think of something that you wanted to do that we haven't mentioned something that you feel called to do. And that can be an activity that you may want to do as well. So, choose one, choose one, choose something for yourself. If nothing here is appealing to you, just. Go and do some research and see if something comes up for you, but yeah. Create a little ritual for yourself or a practice. And. Yeah, just put yourself first in that sense. Oh, this is your life. This is important. It's important for you to have something for yourself and to not lose yourself and to completely. Not no way you're going or what you're doing, because as much as we often look to the future, I feel like that's as a. Society we're often very future forward. But what we're talking about is really looking backwards so that we can sort of clear the year out. And one of the things that I'm going to be doing as well is I'm going to do a massive declutter. Before I leave in a way Costo. And just get as much of it cleaned and clotted decoded as I can, because I know I'm going to go away and I'm going to come back. And with fresh eyes, I'm going to look at the house and I'm going to say to myself, oh my God.

Ane: 17:56

literally. And you already decluttered like half of it, But

Stacey: 18:00

Yup.

Ane: 18:00

that's good. Cause that means you're going to, you're going to be able to declutter more. I'm all about decluttering. I mean, what's that cliche saying of like a clean room as a clean mind or a tidy room as a tidy mind, So absolutely. I love that. And. as you were speaking and you were saying, like, find an activity, find a ritual. Actually, I was thinking, this can even be, like, things that you really, really wanted to do this year and you haven't been able to do. Maybe a pottery class. Maybe a sip and paint class, which is, you just go and do, like, a painting class. Maybe it is those silent disco.

Stacey: 18:36

Mm.

Ane: 18:37

Yes! But you like, you go by yourself, or have one friend or whatever, but you, you do it intentionally for yourself. You're not doing it because you're friends. drag you or this is because of the events you're truly wanting to do it for yourself. I think even that in itself is setting your energetic body up for what you want to have next year. like so many people say. we were talking about visualization and all last on the podcast last week, but at the same time, there's even things like getting yourself into experiences or people that is going to expand your energy regardless, because that's what you're getting yourself used to. So yeah, I just wanted to add that in there. And for me, the same thing, it's also just going to be decluttering going to, I know. So a I guess transparent share is as a Libra rising, I can very quickly get doing what people want to do, right? Like I'm very, I can get easily persuaded into going to events or whatever. And so, and this is because of my self inquiry I did, I was like, okay, you know what? It's actually not selfish of me to. First, make sure that I put in time and space next year, that's just for me. So, when I have like a busy month I'm gonna make sure that by the end of the month or week, I book myself a massage, I go to a road trip and go for a hike, like literally all by myself. And the reason I want to start doing that is because I want to train that muscle and that tolerance. To do things for myself and also just like do things that I want to do without needing to explain or, whatever. So That's something that these self inquiries can really help you with. You can also look at your little weaknesses. Like that's one of my weaknesses. And so from next year, I want to train to not do that. I'm very good at like, yes, going to the gym by myself or Yes. cooking food or whatever myself, like that's fine. But it's these like activities that like, I'm so much quicker to be like, no, I want to go to an event with people. No, it's like, but then it drains me because. It's actually internally, I didn't want to go do that, like internally I want to do, do X, Y, and Z and whatever. I hope that gives you a bit of inspiration to like figure out what you want to shift to change for next year as, As we're reflecting from the past. Mm. Mm hmm.

Stacey: 21:10

muscle. I was like, yes, that's exactly it, because we need to train the muscle because feelings like guilt and shame come up. Because, oh, I shouldn't be doing that. I should be doing this other thing. But we need to continue trench continually train that muscle. That you are a priority. Tell yourself that you're a priority. And not doing things because you have to do them. But carving out space and time for yourself to do something that you would truly called to do. And I really think that that's probably one of the highest callings. As our souls come here to earth. That we all, why we're here so that we can follow those intuitive nudges of the things that. Really we feel lightened passionate about. I really feel like that's one of the, the highest things that we can do. So you should never really feel. Bad about following those nudges, because there's not just were put inside you for a reason. Like they're there for you to listen to that call. And I was listening to Bashaw once he was talking about how every time you ignore the nudges. He's like, well, we come along and you'll fall in a hole and we pick you up and we put you out of the whole. And we say, are you going to listen to us this time? So, you know, when that happens, when you fall in a hole, because you were really following the wrong thing and it all goes really wrong. And then you readjust your course and then you start to follow the real course, since the things start happening. More easily. And

Ane: 22:45

Yeah. And actually that's such a good analogy for business, right? Like sometimes we fall in the trap of doing it this way and you know, intuitively, you know, deep down, I got to change the course. And yet again, you fall into that hole. Like I love that. analogy. It's such a perfect Way to explain, sometimes we go in the wrong direction because we were taught this way, society, we've done it before, so it will have to have work, whatever the story And then you fall into the hole. And it's the same thing with like the, the feather, brick, and like bus analogy, once the nudges is a feather, if you don't hear it first time, it's going to be a brick. If you don't hear it, it's going to be the bus, right? So it's the same thing. It's the I love this conversation, I think this is like, so powerful, we would love to hear your guys input, what you, are putting into reflection, what's coming up yeah, yeah, and, and know that we're here to always support you, we don't judge, we get it, and sometimes it's nice to just, like, me and Stace do this all the time, we'll be like, yeah, I'm having it, X, y, and Z week, and we kind of reflect to each other without even noticing, and it's like, not long, but it helps to just have a soundboard there for someone to just like hear you out. So please message us on our, our dms is always Yeah, let us know what comes through for you guys.

Stacey: 24:06

it's very difficult to sit in your own space and question yourself. Because you can't, you're going around and round in your own mind without having that. Reflection coming back from anywhere else. Sometimes you can do it. But yeah, sometimes you really need to just say it out loud, because sometimes you say things out loud and you realize how ridiculous they are. And then you go, ah, Okay. yes, if you want to reflect. Thought process or something that you've been experiencing. send us a message. On Instagram, our links are in the buyer. In the show notes. Sorry. And yeah, we would love to hear from you and Merry Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas. And, you know, if you're in the Southern hemisphere, we're starting to warm up quite a lot. And if you're. in the Northern hemisphere and it's nice and cold and cozy and snowy. I hope you're having a great time and thank you so much for listening.

Ane: 25:05

Yes, thank you guys and see you guys next time. Bye