It’s a New Year

The clock says 12:09am and it’s officially a new year. At midnight, people were screaming and banging pots. I went to the window and hung out of it, listening, looking, observing. I suppose I feel something when I really think about it and conceptualize that it’s a new year. However, I also feel nothing different. This is in terms of how I used to feel around the turning of a new year – I feel nothing like I used to.

Now, it is another moment and the only meaning it has is the meaning we give to it. So, if I want a new year mentality, I can focus on it and have it.

I think it’s also my lifestyle that makes “beginning anew” not just a once a year concept. I often move to a new place and so that feeling of new energy coming in is not infrequent. I do think though that there are a few types of momentum that make this a good time of year to focus in on renewal though. The first is that there is a lot of energy and focus from many humans put into this idea of the new year and all it represents, creating an energy field that is easier to step into to flow with the ideas of endings and new beginnings.

A drawback to this, though, is that with that momentum comes focus and energies that we may not want to bring into our own new year and new beginning, such as disappointment, focus on societally conditioned aspects (looks, ideas of “success,” external motivation, etc.), and frenetic energy.

The second area of momentum creating a reason why this is a good time of year for renewal is the seasons. Of course, this only applies to part of the world. But, for regions where we are in winter, naturally colder and darker time periods lend themselves to hibernation, slowing down, death, and expectation in general, as well as specific anticipation of resurrection, rebirth, and birth. The fact that it is darker also naturally lends itself to knowledge that the future brings light, and this expectation creates a well of energetic potential that can be cultivated and focused into use for one’s own letting go and transformation purposes.

It’s a wonderful time for reflection and cultivation, planting energy where we want to inside of ourselves. Though I didn’t quite feel that coming from the people screaming outside. Today I went to a coffee shop and did a little journaling, asking myself questions about me and how I feel right now, in order to center and reflect, and that was nice. I sat there pondering my entire journey, not just this past year, and it was good to take the time for that. If it being the new year can prompt that type of reflection, then it’s wonderful.