New Years Rituals: The Importance of Integration, Intention & Celebration

New Years rituals and reviewing our previous year can be game changers!  

In this episode, I share the importance of integrating past experiences and celebrating accomplishments, large and small, through a year in review practice. And, how one word can help guide us into co-creating a more intentional new year!

A "year in review" and new years intention setting ritual can be as simple or elaborate as you desire.  How will these two things support you to live a more God-led and God-centered life into the New Year?

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Music by Song Channel Music.  Listen at SongChannelMusic.com

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

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Hey everyone, Sarah here. Just to let you know, sometimes I do use swear words in these episodes, and we may at times discuss adult content. In case you happen to be listening around little ones or people that won't appreciate that. Thanks so much for listening, and let's get right into it. Hi, and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God. Thank you so much for listening to Welcoming God. In this new episode, we are going to talk about the new year and setting ourselves up for success through the year by integrating what's happening in our lives. And just talk a bit about intention setting and integration as a tool that can be used throughout the year. So I started this many years ago, inspired by different coaches and people that I was following, my twin sister as well, the importance of reflecting on the year at the end of the year. And that practice evolved into reflecting quarterly throughout the year so that I didn't have so much to think about and reflect on at the end of the year. And then I let that practice go during COVID. I needed a break from everything and I just needed to be free. So I let that go for a few years, maybe even several years. And then last year, in actually in 2024, the year before last year at this point, I was inspired by a woman who was writing for the Canadian Company of Pilgrims out of Hamilton, Canada. And she wrote about the importance of integration with any big experience that we go through in life. And that integration is so valuable and it's so important because it can help us to anchor in, ground, and root into the lessons that we've learned, the experiences that we've had. And I'll even say myself to receive the goodness of these experiences that we're having in life, whether they feel challenging or easy and effortless and feel good to our systems. There, as far as I am concerned, right now at this point in the journey, there can be goodness reaped from everything. There can be lessons and insights, value in everything that I'm experiencing in my day-to-day life, whether it feels good to me or not. So I really took that to heart. And in December of 2024, I felt called to do a three-day personal retreat. And I went through the entire year because I had not been doing my year in review like I had before COVID. And I went through the whole year. I went through, I have a personal document that I keep all of my insights and revelations on from the year. And I've been doing that for years as well. I just keep it in a folder online. And I went through that. I wrote about it. I drew. I had a big piece of paper that I drew on and wrote on what I got from the this previous year in 2024, and then what my intentions were and my commitments for the new year in 2025. And that was really cool. And then I put some of like my main commitment for the year into a reminder on my phone that came comes up. It still comes up every day. And that would make it a lot easier for me to do it that way and instead of waiting till the end of the year. So in 2025, I did a month in review. So around the end of the month, I just freeform wrote about the month. And it's interesting because this used to be, it was both business focused for me because I run a business doing all kinds of things to help people connect with their truth and help them get in touch with this oneness within them so that they can discern and follow the guidance of this truth within them and be their best selves in life. So I do that through Latin partner dancing and performing the history of Latin dance. We go into schools and elder care facilities and community centers and businesses and all kinds of places to do this. And then I also am a trained life coach and a trained yoga instructor and yoga for scoliosis and an artist. I sell my ceramic artwork online and also I record and release original music and now I'm doing the welcoming God. So all of this is encompassed within my business, which is called Love is Real LLC. And so my years in review used to be really business focused, like how I was doing in my business, what were my goals in my business? And then they would also be personal, like how are things going in my personal life, in these areas of my personal life, spiritually, in my relationships, romantically, um, you know, things that I was doing for fun, how was I taking care of myself, maybe even like mentally, emotionally, like how what am I feeling in my life? And what are the things that I'm learning? And what are the things that I want to cultivate more of in the new year or more of in the next month? So now, this past year in 2025, my reviews are more fluid. They're just more free for them. What come what's coming to mind? What do I feel like writing about? What were the challenges? And these months in review actually give me an opportunity to further process, flesh out what happened in challenging situations, trying to understand them, um, seeking and experiencing and receiving new revelations and insights from these challenges. And then also celebrating and remembering the things that felt really good and awesome and remembering those things, because I can tend to remember the challenges or the stuff that felt bad or doesn't feel good over the stuff that's really working and does feel good. So I like to call up all the good stuff, whatever I'm really celebrating and proud of or receiving as in like, yeah, oh, that felt so good. That was so nice when I did that thing, or I was with those people, or I spent that spent that time with that person or had that meal together or whatever. Um so that is so valuable. And literally, all I do is put a reminder into my phone every month. It's a monthly reminder that pops up on the last day of the month and it says month in review. And then if I can't do it that day, I'll just schedule it close to around that day when I can. And I sit, I give myself an hour or two to do it. And when I feel done, I'm done. Um, and sometimes I'll go through my personal insights of that month that I put in that other document just for my personal insights for the year. Um, sometimes I'll go through that to remember, like, oh, what did I get this month? You know, what insights came through and to further anchor into those. And I don't always do that, but um, I want this to feel enjoyable and and and productive in a way that fuels me and feels good to my soul and spirit, and does help me integrate what I need to and further anchor into God's love and the the good stuff that's happening in my life, whether it feels comfortable or not. So then at the end of the year, I create a new folder for the new year coming up, and I create a new document that's like, what do I want in 2026? And uh this has been coming through me for several years now, where a word seems to present itself for the year. And so I just that word presents itself, I put it on the page, I then start um just typing out what I really want to experience more of in the new year, maybe things that I want to accomplish or things that I want to do more of, who I want to be. Um, again, it's funny because it's less business focused now. It's just more holistically focused in my life, which I know business is a part of and how I earn a living and support myself. And um that's a part of it. It's just more integrated now as a whole, as opposed to like separate business and personal. And and then I just keep adding to that. If new thoughts come up, new intentions, new insights for the new year, I just keep adding to that document. And it's super easy, it's super flowing. And then I have some grounding, some insight, some pathway that's uh been created for the new year. And I have no idea what the new year is gonna hold for me. Um, however, this, these intentions, these ideas, these uh desires, what I want to cultivate and experience more of in the new year, they can help act as a roadmap or a or a guide to the new year so that I'm you know, just feel a bit more anchored. And um and and I and I really do this. I I try to do this with God, like just opening up, allowing God to move through me, whatever God is, like, you know, maybe you don't call it God, maybe you call it love or, you know, life or life force energy, universe, the holy one, truth, one true source, like whatever you call it, um, that truth, that oneness that we're all a part of, that's a part of all of us. And um, so, you know, of course, I I I my ultimate intention is and goal is that I'm working in harmony with this one true source and allowing this one true source to guide me. And then I open up and I just see what comes out uh into these, you know, New Year's documents, and then I move on. And so I just am encouraging you to consider what it would be like to start a practice like this? What would it be like to do a month in review? You know, even if you just have 10 minutes to reflect on the past month, either write it in a journal, type it out in a document, keep a folder for that year somewhere on your computer, just sit and ponder it. If you don't feel the need to type it out or write it out, talk to God about it. What would it be like to do a month and review or a quarterly review? Or if you don't want to do that, maybe half a year. Every six months you do a review. And then set in that reminder at the end of the year, maybe a couple weeks before the new year, to start creating that new year's document that has a word that's popping up for you for the new year, some word that can act as a guide, some intention for you in your life for this new coming year, and some of the ways that you'd like to be showing up, some of the things you'd like to be doing, some of the ways you'd like to be experiencing life, or the things you'd like to be cultivating or opening to or experiencing more of, um, focusing on, you know, whatever is important to you. So, what will it be like for you to create some kind of an intention for this and create some kind of a ritual for you that will help you to further integrate all of the goodness that's coming through the challenges and the fun, loving, useful experiences. Everything that you are learning, all of the ways that you're growing and being pushed to evolve and open up more to God's true love, God's truth, this oneness that we're all a part of, so that we can truly be God's pure love in this life and share it, share it with the world and share it with all everywhere, seen and unseen, for the greater good of all in all spaces, places, times, dimensions, and realities with the least amount of suffering and the most amount of joy. So I will leave you with this. And I hope that you enjoy this practice. And I look forward, if you'd like to send me an email. You can go to welcoming God.com and just scroll to the bottom of the page, to the get in touch section. Let me know how's your year in review going? What are you focusing on for the new year? Thank you so much for listening. And until we meet again, stay tuned for another episode coming up next week. Aloha, newa, and take care, everybody. God bless. Hey everyone, Sarah Haeckel here from Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers. This is a legal disclaimer to say that this podcast is not a substitute for therapy or professional help. I am not a trained therapist. I also have not studied theology in a formal setting. This podcast is purely for educational, inspirational purposes, to share the goodness of welcoming God back into my life and all of the things that I'm learning on this journey. So thank you for joining me here, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks for joining me on another episode of Welcoming God. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen, and consider leaving us a review as it helps more people find and benefit from this show. Music by Song Channel Music. You can listen and hear more at Song Channel Music.