By Andy Vantrease
“It’s none of your business how you get there. But getting there — and being there — is your business.”– Hilary Booker, PhD, The Institute for Earth-Based Living
With the winter solstice behind us, the days are growing longer ever so slowly and we are steadily emerging back into the light. It’s easy to hunker down, hold your breath and wait for spring. Or rush through the season, filling your schedule with holiday parties, long work hours and bottomless cocktails. Make no mistake, though — winter is a time to rest. To reflect on where we’ve been and where we want to go. A time of meditation, clarification and rejuvenation.
This week, in particular, is a time to set intentions, focusing on what you want to manifest in the coming year, the coming season, the coming weeks. It’s a time to assess all that you’ve learned and decide how you will take those lessons with you. It’s a time for nourishment, perhaps leaning even further toward slow, inward practices than you usually do.
Light a candle, burn some sage, turn on your favorite slow jams, and sit quietly, feeling into your body. Imagine what your life will be like when you achieve your goals. Ask yourself how you will feel when you reach them.
“What do I feel like when I value my gifts and use them to serve the world?”
“What does it feel like to be in healthy relationships with others?”
“What do I feel like when I embrace my feminine warrior?”
“What does it feel like to accept the unknown?”
More than the goals themselves, the feeling of reaching them is the focus. Write it down, act it out, do some interpretive dance, make up a yoga pose that depicts how you feel internally when you envision your ideal life. What does your heart feel like, your bones, your spirit, your energy? FEEL IT.
Then… don’t lose your mind trying to figure out how you’re going to get there. In fact, it’s none of your business (or anyone else’s) how you get there. This isn’t to say sit back and do nothing while your life passes you by. It means having faith in your own unfolding and choosing not to obsess over the details along the way. It means living day by day, not worrying about what will happen next week or next month.
Do what you need to do today — and today only — to make you feel the answers to your questions. Wake up and start again tomorrow. The magic will follow. The universe will support you. And before you know it, you’ll be living the answers in your mind, in your body and in your spirit.
