Lena Stevens – We start the year with a neon sign telling us to SLOW DOWN.  Slow everything down, go inward, rest more, keep a “don’t know mind” about everything, reflect, feel, process, and align your heart with your mind. We are conditioned to want to charge out of the gate with our new intentions and resolutions, ready for action, but that is not what is in the cards for the first part of this month.

Acceptance, one of the traits of the year, will be of great help in keeping frustration, impatience and irritability at bay. Resistance will only cause suffering and keep you from being fully present for the actual opportunities that a time like this has to offer.  You will need to be ultra-flexible in your schedule, your routines, and, most of all, in your expectations. Be willing to release a plan and to accept things just the way they are. To the extent you stay in blame or resentment, you cannot create something new in its place.

Since the first part of the month supports a deeply internal time, it is an opportunity to reflect on who you are and what you truly desire in life. Coming from the heart, this can lead to a deeper acceptance of self and your unique qualities, diversity and medicine. This acceptance needs to be part of the foundation you anchor for yourself that will then support your intentions and resolutions for the year.

Although you should be setting intentions, goals and resolutions for 2023, it is premature to solidify them in any concrete way. Think of them as a work in progress that will be refined and possibly redefined as you navigate forward. Remember that your intentions are where you wish to end up (such as better health).

Your goals are the concrete definable accomplishments towards your intention (such as lose lbs.), and your resolutions are the disciplined action steps you need to engage to achieve your goals that will then manifest your intentions (such as going to the gym twice a week). Be easy on yourself around the disciplines while in this time of deep inner reflection and give all of your intentions a bit of room to shift and change along with what you discover about yourself.

Obviously, you cannot ignore certain responsibilities during this slower internal time. You can, however, take the unimportant tasks that can wait off your plate so you have less to accomplish each day. A slow internal cycle is not unproductive. The productivity is simply not as easily measured externally.

Because we are in a huge cycle of change, we need to leave room for change to occur and this requires a time of inner reflection without a lot of outward activity. Since 2022 was such an actively challenging year, we need this time to process and assimilate. So, let yourself be slower and hold off on jumping into any huge project until later in the month.

The Discernment theme of the month will help in your choices of what to keep on your plate and what to push until later or discard completely. Once the energy shifts (around the new moon on the 21st) to a more active time, discernment will be crucial in your decisions about what to take on and move forward with and what no longer fits with who you are.

It will also help you to accept what is yours and to set boundaries against what is not yours. Staying in your own lane this month is a good practice and it will support you to stay focused on your own internal process.

It is important to release any old intentions you had last year that were not realized. If they are still viable after this time of reflection, you can modify them to a new set of goals and resolutions. Since this is a new time and we really have no idea about the future, it is best not to bring old energy or any attachments into new intentions. We can all intend for 2023 to be better than 2022 however that manifests for each one of us.

This month’s support audio has a great process to help with the themes of acceptance and discernment.

How the month shows up:

You Personally

A great month to reflect and reset how you are, what you do, how you do it, your communication, your balance, and your responsibilities to yourself and to your close relationships. In order to take advantage of this opportunity you need to give yourself time and space to slow down and be with yourself.

There can be great insights during this time that can lead to improvement in self-esteem and the way that you manage your time, your relationships, your responsibilities, your health and your intentions.

There may be a tendency for … continue reading …

SF Source The Power Path Jan 2023