A New Years Revolution: Ritual & Reflections to Welcome in the New Year with Wellness and Intention

This episode is so much more than a simple New Year’s resolution list or goal-setting exercise…

This episode offers a moment of deep reflection. It is the start of a new chapter and a fresh start. New Year is a powerful opportunity to reflect on the past year, yourself, and your life and set meaningful, heart-centered intentions to embody the wholeness of what you truly desire and prioritize what matters to you most.

So let's dive in now! Grab your journal and let's dive in!

In this episode you'll learn:

1. A powerful New Year's ritual to start the year right!
2. How you may accidentally be setting your New Year's goals up to fail.
3. How to create heart-centered goals that stick
4. 10 Journal prompts to reflect on the year that's past and call in the year to come
5. How to reverse engineer your goals in a way that you'll actually stick to them!

Links:

Get the New Years Workbook here: www.bindistables.com/new-years-workbook-2

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be SO grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

I’d love to connect with you on IG: www.instagram.com/bindistables

Visit my website for more resources and ways to work with me: www.bindistables.com

Transcript

Bindi: 0:04

Welcome to the Vibrant you podcast. I'm your host, bindi Stables, and here we talk all things wellness and vibrant living. You'll learn about integrative health, functional medicine, holistic biohacking and enjoy raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Optimize your body and mind and become the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant. You Enjoy the show. Hello, happy holidays and welcome back to another episode of Vibrant you.

Bindi: 0:40

I'm so excited for today's episode because we're talking about a New Year's revolution. I'm going to be sharing with you a New Year's ritual and reflections that I personally do every single year around this time to really welcome the New Year in with intention and with wellness. So there are so many ways that you might choose to bring in the New Year, and something that's been consistently really important to me for the last 15 years or so, since I really got into the world of personal development and wellness and self-healing, is the importance of intention and really allowing. Of course, any day can be an anchor into a fresh start, but there's something really magical about the New Year and just collectively, people hitting the reset button on life, getting clear with what it is that they truly desire, their goals, the direction that they want to take their life and I think that we can really get on board with that. So I have had many different New Year's rituals over the years, some very elaborate and extensive. I used to do these really powerful three-hour-long Vedic ceremonies and rituals that I studied when I used to be in India and be in the ashram for several months every year, with a lot of mantras and making offerings and a lot of prayer. It was very spiritual in nature and, while I still love that so much, of course it's different chapters of life, we need different things, and I tend to have a bit more simplified version nowadays.

Bindi: 2:01

Now, my personal ritual that has through every chapter and season of my life since I've kind of gotten into this personal growth world, is that the one thing that has stayed really, really consistent is that I have zero interest in staying up until midnight. It does not mean a single thing to me. I value my sleep so much, and what really is more significant to me is that my personal commitment is that I wake up really, really early on January 1st and I love to go outside before the sun rises. I go find the, the tallest place in nature, like the highest place with the most beautiful view that I can find and I will watch the first sunrise of the New Year. So I've done this for many years. I've done this by myself, I've done it with friends. If I'm with friends for New Years, I've done it with my partner and for me it's really symbolic and really beautiful to watch that first sunrise of the New Year and I'll usually say a little prayer.

Bindi: 2:52

There's different rituals that I've done. A really beautiful ancient practice called Surya Vandanam is like making offerings to the sun and it can be really beautiful. So that's my personal ritual. And then New Year's Day I love to spend the day in total reflection. So the whole day is me in my journal and really nourishing myself and resting and just being in a really reflective space, whether it's just on my own some years, some years I'll do it with my partner. Other years I've done it with girlfriends or in community, and that's also really beautiful.

Bindi: 3:23

So whatever way you choose to, it's a beautiful moment to spend in reflection and asking ourselves some deeper questions. So I tend to have a very different approach to New Year's resolutions and setting goals and all of those things. You know, for me New Year's resolutions can be a bit exhaustive. It can feel like a list of chores, we can kind of let our self-worth go on a bit of a roller coaster of whether we achieved those goals or we didn't. So I prefer, instead of New Year's resolutions, to think of New Year's reflections right, or intention setting versus goal setting. So it's a moment of deep reflection and the New Year is a start of a new chapter. It's a fresh start and it's a powerful opportunity for us to reflect on the year that's passed and to set meaningful and heart-centered intentions, to really embody what we want to in the year to come and to prioritize and intentionally prioritize what matters to us most.

Bindi: 4:15

So I want to share this with you. There's a few ways that you can use this episode. You can either grab your journal, grab a cup of tea, make yourself cozy. We can go through this together. I'm going to be sharing with you the exact journaling prompts that I use and the reflections, so we can either do it side by side and you can pause me as we go. You can listen to the prompt, journal it and then turn me back on again and we keep going together. Or even better is, what I've done is I've actually created a whole New Year's workbook, and it's exactly the questions that I use. So I'm going to be journaling these with you. Actually, the day that this episode comes out on New Year's Day, at least in Bali, I'm going to be in this reflection with you and in that energy and that vortex of intention setting. So I will have that ebook, it's going to be on my website, it's going to be at bindistablescom. Forward slash New Year's workbook and there's dashes between the words, but I will link it up in the show notes and you'll find it on my Instagram. Or you can always send me a DM. My handles at bindistables. You can DM me on Instagram and I will send you the workbook and we'll do it together and it'll be super fun.

Bindi: 5:16

Okay, so let's dive in. Make yourself comfortable. You don't have to get it perfect, we just have to get it started. So let's dive right in. So first we have to talk about heart centered goals. So standard goals, in my opinion, are kind of these like notions of hope to create a change in our outer experience, while heart centered goals really aim to create change in our inner experience, which manifests outwardly into the different areas of our life.

Bindi: 5:40

So the key to this transformation, I believe, is not outside of you that this power really lies within and standard goals. You know they tend to be very discipline based, these kind of like daily chores to eventually or hopefully achieve a desired outcome in our external world. When done with awareness and gratitude, these goals are really vital to creating a meaningful life. However, I've always found that when these goals are created from an ego place with emotions of like self shame or self criticism, from fear or scarcity, you know, like our goals being rooted and I'm not enough right. I want to lose weight because I'm not good enough as I am. You know those types of goals they tend to feel cagey, they feel unfulfilling, they feel unachievable and, quite frankly, exhausting and unsustainable. So, of course, you know, we know, that true happiness and fulfillment doesn't come from achieving these external goals. But heart centered goals are navigated from a different place. They come from this place of inner meaning and intention and devotion. They offer a way of creating transformation in our inner world right, which manifests outwardly into our outer experience. And in creating this life that is truly aligned with our true self and how we want to feel, we naturally create and manifest that which we desire most. So these heart centered goals, they feel authentic, they feel meaningful, they feel deeply fulfilling. These are the desires, the deep, heartfelt desires that we want. So we're going to talk about how to revolutionize these goals that you may have into crystal clear, powerful, heart centered visions built on a really solid foundation of who you are and what matters to you most, what you truly desire in life.

Bindi: 7:13

So step one is to reflect on the year that's passed. So 2023, or maybe you're listening to this years down the line. I'm sure I'll share and post about it again in future years, because it'll be the same process that I go through, year by year. So you're either reflecting on 2023 or whatever year you are turning in. Take a moment to reflect in journal upon the year that's passed. So some of the main prompts or questions that I'm asking myself is number one I make a list of the most beautiful and positive moments of the year that's passed.

Bindi: 7:44

So what were the beautiful things that happened this year? And I know for me sometimes, when I go to sit down and like oh my God, it feels like a bit of a blur, like what has happened in this last year. I know there's been so much, but what is it so hot little tip for you is go back through your photos and go back through your calendar to help you recall the highlights, because I find, like, what did I do last, you know, a year ago in January, and I often won't remember. So your calendar and your photos, they are an amazing way to remember Like, oh my God, yeah, I did that super cool thing. Or oh, I achieved this thing. Or, oh my God, that memory that was so precious. So, number one make a list of the most beautiful positive moments of the year.

Bindi: 8:22

Okay, number two what are you most proud of from this last year? What can you celebrate? So, consider, you know your health, your career, your relationships, your studies, your hobbies, your self-care, your personal development, your spiritual practices, whatever it is. What are you most proud of? What can you really celebrate yourself for from this last year? And just let be, you know, any resistance. I know sometimes I'll feel like it can feel challenging to celebrate, or things don't feel perfect or they don't feel fully formed or fully accomplished yet. It's still in process. But just let that sit to the side for the moment and, um, yeah, just really give yourself permission to to acknowledge your accomplishments and to celebrate yourself.

Bindi: 9:07

Okay, question three in this part, one of reflecting on the past year is what were the greatest challenges of the last year? So what were the biggest challenges of 2023 for you? Think about the different areas of your life, the challenges in your work, your relationship, your personal growth, your mental health, right, but more important, right. What I usually do is I'll write out a list of like what those challenges were, like what put you through the ringer, what were the biggest challenges, and then, side by side, right Alongside of that list, I'll make a little dash and I'll write okay, what did I learn from that? Right, what did that challenge teach me and how am I leaving this year, you know, with, as a more wise, you know, vibrant, resilient yeah, amazing me. So what were the challenges and what did those challenges teach you? Make a little list, okay.

Bindi: 10:02

Question number four is in what ways did you grow, so acknowledging our growth, what did you learn? What did you realize about yourself this last year? And again, you can consider all the different areas of life, from your health, your career, your relationships, your personal growth. What wisdom can you take away from 2023 and bring with you into this year of 2024? Okay, and then the final question that I asked myself in part, one reflections from the year that's passed is what am I ready to let go of from this past year to free me up and make space for the year to come?

Bindi: 10:37

So I always ask myself what are the limiting beliefs, what are the disappointments, the resentments, the pain that I'm holding onto, that I am keyword ready to release? And you may not be ready to to release everything, and that's okay. So let's be honest with ourselves. And what am I ready to release? And if you notice like, oh, there's that resentment with this person and I'm I'm not ready to let that go, that still feels really alive and really there, then asking yourself, what can you do to support yourself through that resistance? Right, and that there's no rush, there's no pressure, it's just like a possibility of creating a bit more of a clean slate to move into the year, to come from a bit more of a fresh, clean, clear energy. And again, if there is that resistance, then asking what do I need? Right, what do I need to soften maybe the grip on this resentment or this disappointment or this limiting belief that I'm choosing to hold on to? Okay, so that is the reflections from the year that's passed.

Bindi: 11:35

So, before we get into goals and intention setting for the year to come, I want to share with you how to reverse engineer our goals. So, in my opinion, the missing link in goal setting, in bucket lists, in these Pinterest vision boards that we all create, you know, the missing link is really that true, heartfelt desire that's rooted in who we truly are and what matters most to our hearts and to our soul. And I've known for me that this is really why, sometimes, goals we often find ourselves striving for these outer experiences and pleasures or material possessions in hopes that they'll make us happy. And I know, for me, I found myself in the past, you know, in patterns of like impulse shopping or overindulging and unhealthy food, or way, way, way back in the day In the day, binge drinking or dating the wrong person over and over again. You know, when we try to fill that inner void with outer means, it's a hunger that can never be satisfied. But this lasting fulfillment, you know, but of course, can't be found outside of you, because it comes from within and often how we approach goals comes from the same place. It comes from lack.

Bindi: 12:40

We often try to fill again that inner void with goals that are kind of random, that are incomplete and that come from from the ego, from the mind, not from the heart, not from true desire, right, often what we think we desire only touches the real surface of our hearts, truest desire. It's merely pointing to something hidden underneath the surface of the desire. There's something so much deeper that we truly wish for. So, as we kind of reverse engineer our goals, for a second I just want you to consider a desire or a goal that you have, or that you have had in the past, maybe one that keeps coming back, that hasn't really worked out very well for you, right? Ask yourself, you know, is that truly what you want? Or is there something deeper? Is there a deeper core feeling, perhaps, that's underneath of that goal? So, for example, do you actually want to lose 10 pounds? Or do you want to feel healthy? You want to feel accepted, you want to feel beautiful, right, that's really different. Do you really want to?

Bindi: 13:34

You know, most people always send set goals of, like I'm going to go to the gym three times a week, you know, is that your desire to go to the gym three times a week? Or is your desire to feel strong, to feel balanced, that you truly see Right? Are you really looking for, like the perfect partner, or is it a deeper calling for this unconditional love or this deep sense of connection that you're longing for? So I truly believe that behind all desire there's an underlying essence or a desired feeling that is important for us to acknowledge. Otherwise our goals they just feel empty, they feel bottomless and they often feel random and will always be striving for more or different, as we've derived this happiness or fulfillment from these external things that can never hit the spot for us. So, goals and bucket lists and vision boards they are amazing and I also do those things. But first we have to consider the true emotional landscape behind all that we desire.

Bindi: 14:26

I think it was Danielle LaPorte. I might be butchering this quote, but she said something along the lines of if your goals aren't aligned to the substance of your soul, achieving them won't matter much to you. I might be saying that wrong, but it's a beautiful quote, even if it's not perfectly memorized. It's a beautiful quote and such a great reminder that these desires that come from true heart and true desire and they often feel vulnerable and edgy. Right, it's like pretty casual to say I want to lose 10 pounds. Pretty edgy to say. I want to feel sexy and I want to feel beautiful. I want to feel so confident in my body. I want to feel accepted. I want to feel healthy. You know, it's a lot easier to stay in the mundane of like losing 10 pounds or going to the gym three times a week than the true desire of like. I want to feel so attractive and attracted to my partner and I want there to be the most delicious chemistry and polarity, and I want us to have amazing sex. And I know that that starts with me feeling really good and confident and healthy in my own body, right? Those are the true desires, okay, so let's get into part two, envisioning the year to come.

Bindi: 15:33

So for me, the very first question, the most important New Year's question, is how do I want to feel? Okay, so, journal this how do I want to feel in 2024? And some examples of how I want to feel is like let's go deeper than just like. I want to feel good. I want to feel healthy. I want to feel nice, right? Well, let me give you some examples and again, I have a whole page, like a whole list of core desired feelings inspired by Danielle LaPorte in the New Year's workbook, so you can just get this and, you know, use it as a visual For me.

Bindi: 16:02

I want to feel vibrant, I want to feel alive, I want to feel ex I want to feel vibrantly healthy. Right, some others that may strike your inspiration Maybe. You want to feel adventurous, you want to feel abundant. You want to feel confident. You want to feel ease. You want to feel liberated. You want to feel authentic or devoted. You want to feel safe, so freaking safe in your nervous system this year. You want to feel in awe. You want to feel divinely feminine. You want to feel deep peace. You want to feel the magic of life again. You want to thrive. You want to feel so grounded and so solid within yourself. You want to feel supported and connected. So you want to feel nourished. You want to feel healed. What do you want to feel? So knowing these core desired feelings and listing them out right Is so, so valuable. So that's question number one is I kind of just like brain dump, like I did here, and you probably felt the excitement in my voice of like ooh, I want to feel this, and you know that that's your desire when you feel this bubbling of excitement and you feel this fluttering in your stomach and you feel like a little bit of edge, right, those are the core desired feelings. So that's question one how do you want to feel in 2024?

Bindi: 17:12

Question two is from that big list of feelings that you wrote out, narrow it down. What are your top three to five core desired feelings? So feel into the feelings that you shared above right, and which ones stand out? Which ones light you up the most? Which ones maybe feel a little bit edgy? Right, I know, like consistently for me, feeling alive, right, that's been my intention for like five years now. That's like always a core values to feel really alive and really vibrant and really expansive, right, so that one feels like pretty grounded in my nervous system, like it feels like safe, right. But if I look at this list and I'm like, ooh, I want to feel sexy, right, this is a new one, this one feels a little bit more edgy. I want to feel magnetic, right, I want to feel so in my feminine energy, you know, those feel a little bit edgier or not edgy, but just like newer to my nervous system and there's like a bubbly. I feel bubbles of excitement or like, ooh, yes, that that's question two. What are those top three to five core desired feelings? Okay, question number three what are the top three life areas that you want to prioritize and focus on in this year to come?

Bindi: 18:19

So, inside of the ebook I've created, it's called the wheel of life. Many people have used this before me. It's not mine. It's a very common coaching tool that we use and on this wheel of life there's various areas of life, right? So there's our physical health that's one area of life. Our emotional wellbeing, our personal growth, our self love and spirituality, our relationships, our career and finance, purpose and contribution, our play and pleasure or hobbies, right. So these are the different areas of life, and I'd love for you to just reflect what three areas do you really want to focus on and prioritize this year? Of course, all of it's important, you know, like our let's. Let me look at it. I haven't done mine yet. I'm going to be doing mine on the same day that this episode comes out.

Bindi: 19:01

So self love and spirituality has felt so like 10 out of 10 for me in the last couple of years, right, but play and pleasure is definitely one that I want to invite more of into my life. That one maybe feels like a three out of 10, maybe a four out of 10 actually. So it's not that self love and spirituality is less important, it's just that it's already feeling so fulfilled. So a focus of this next year for me will be on playing pleasure and how can I bring more of that into my life? Right, so what are those top three life areas that you want to prioritize and focus on this year?

Bindi: 19:31

Okay, next question is what obstacles might come up for you on this path to achieving those goals that you're going to create in this next year? So, basically, we're trying to put things in place to overcome those challenges before they even arise, to help you stay on track. So, if I'm just thinking, okay, I know that I want to feel alive and I want to feel vibrant and that a main area of life that I want to focus on is my play and pleasure. I can already foresee the obstacles that are going to come up for me, and it's going to be work related. It's going to be the obstacle of, like, managing my time to really schedule in play and pleasure, to really make it a top priority. So there's a timing obstacle. There is a mindset obstacle that I know that I'll need to, you know, be prepared to meet, which is like play and pleasure is not important as like work or finances or friendship or relationship, right. So just noting what those natural obstacles are for you so that you can be prepared and equipped to really be able to move through it and to stay on track with those desires and those core desired feelings.

Bindi: 20:33

And then the final question, almost the final question, is what could help you fast track your way towards achieving your 2024 goals? Okay, so I love collapsing time in these areas of life that I really want to focus, by reading books on the subject, by taking programs, working with mentors or guides that can help me overcome the obstacles in the area of life I want to focus on and help keep me accountable and really accelerate my way towards how I want to feel. So, if one of the core desired feelings that I have for 2024 is health because it always is health for me that's always a top one right. I really value my health and my well-being. And maybe the area of life that I really want to focus on is my physical health right, which I will I love January to kickstart like a detoxification program that I do for myself, which, if you're also wanting to do a detox protocol, I have an amazing online program for you. It's called the Radiant Health Detox, where I guide you through everything that you need to know to complete your own at home functional medicine detox, which is a powerful way to just clean and clear out your body and mind. It's like hitting the reset button on your body and mind so that you can really move into the new year from a really fresh, clean, clear slate and feel super vibrant and healthy in your body, feel energized in your mind, feel lighter, more clear. So I will link that up in the show notes the Radiant Health Detox course. It's super affordable. You guys I think it's like $27, which is basically just to you know actually invite you to do it. I don't need the $27. It's literally about your commitment and you saying like, yes, I'm going to purchase this course and then I'm committed to doing it and that's really what I want for you. If you can't afford $27, send me a message. Happy to send it to you for free. But it really is just about like helping you to commit and to actually move through the program and make it happen and get those results. So what could help you fast track your way right. If health is a top goal and it's a top core desired feeling and you want to focus on that area of your life, how can you accelerate that? What books do you want to read? What programs do you want to take? What podcasts do you want to listen to? What mentors or coaches or guides do you want to work with? What to help you overcome those obstacles with your health, to keep you accountable, to accelerate your way towards feeling how you want to feel in your body? Okay, so go ahead and write those down.

Bindi: 22:53

Then the final piece you guys, this is how we go beyond goals and we go into intentions. So I want you to recall those top three to five core desired feelings that you wrote down on that previous page. So remember all of the words that you could feel right For me I don't know if these are my this year, but I know usually it's like something around. I want to feel vibrant, I want to feel alive, I want to feel healthy, I want to feel expansive and, let's add, sexy, because I just added that one in that was spontaneous. So those are, say, my top core five desired feelings.

Bindi: 23:23

Okay, then what I do is I create a little mind map to really basically get those feelings into tangible, structural, logistical form that we can actually achieve. Okay, so what it means is like this on a big piece of paper, I will write the core desired feelings in the middle of the page. So let's use vibrant as an example. That's always how I want to feel, so and we're mind mapping this out, okay, so in the center of the page is vibrant, the core desired feeling. And then I'm going to start to branch out from that word vibrant and I'm going to start to put in generally what I can do to cultivate, to fulfill and to embody that feeling of vibrancy. Right, so I could put being in nature. Right, I could put getting amazing sleep. I could put exercise. I could put self care, I could put eating healthy, fresh, vibrant foods. Okay. So that's kind of the first step.

Bindi: 24:15

And then, from those things that I branched out from the mind map, we're going to branch out even further and we're going to now get into specific, tangible, measurable goals and action steps that we can take to actually fulfill that feeling. So this is where our intention becomes goals that actually matter, right, not just about I want to go to the gym three times a week because I want to lose weight. It's like no, I want to go to yoga once a week and I want to bike, to work three times a week to exercise, so that I can feel vibrant. So it's really getting into specific and the more specific that you can get, the better, like I've got, you know, branching out from vibrant, I've got being in nature and then I branch out again. You know, spend 15 minutes of sunshine in the early morning hours every single day, right, 15 minutes. And that's a goal, that's a tangible thing that I can put on the calendar, I can cross off of it to do list and it makes me feel vibrant, right.

Bindi: 25:10

Another one that it goes out to is like outdoor activity minimum once a week Right. I'm actually going to update that. This is from last year for me, so I actually put that to daily because it's now become a daily important ritual to me. So I have a sunset activity every single day, five days a week, let's say weekends. I'm kind of in flow and I do what I want, but every day at about five o'clock, so around sunset time here in Bali, between five and six, I go outside and I'm either going to go to the beach I'm, either going to go for a nice long walk in nature. I might go to the outdoor like sauna and cold plunge plays and go lay in the sunshine and be in the heat and the cold.

Bindi: 25:45

So I think you understand right. We're just branching out further and further and further and getting more specific and then you can actually add it to your calendar and then it actually happens, right? So this is where we really revolutionize our new year's intentions and we turn them into these powerful envisioning right process and these powerful goals for the year to come. That's really going to hit the spot and really help us to feel exactly how we desire to feel. So that is all for today, my love. That is exactly the new year's ritual and reflection that I do to welcome in the new year with wellness and intention. We're focusing on those heart centered goals. We're reflecting from the year that's passed. We're reverse engineering our goals to really understand where our goals are coming from and why they matter. And then we go through this powerful envisioning process for the year to come where we're setting goals based on how we truly desire to feel inside. So again, if you'd like the workbook, it's going to be on my website at bindi-stablescom.

Bindi: 26:44

Forward slash new dash years dash workbook One word right. Or message me on Instagram. I handles at bindi-stables b-i-n-d-i stables with a B and I will send it to you. So that's all for now. I'm sending you so much love. I am wishing you the most amazing, epic, health filled, vibrant, beautiful 2024 to come, and I'll see you back for another episode real soon. Take care. Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review, or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on Instagram at bindi-stables, or visit my website, bindi-stablescom, to connect and work with me. Thank you so much again for being here and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant you.