The Year End Power Pause: Complete 2018 Feeling Proud, Peaceful & Empowered
I am a big believer that how you complete a year has a potent impact on how you begin and live the next. Sadly in our culture, the rituals we have for completing a year set us more up for overwhelm or more of the same that’s not working for us, than they do for a higher level of personal success and happiness.
I can’t remember ever spending a New Year’s Eve that made me feel more replenished and ready to begin the year strong and clear. You?
Too often the holiday boost gets us through the first week of January, but by mid month we already feel behind and like we have to hit the ground running at work. And like hamsters who ate too much, we lug ourselves like a rat pack to the gym to sweat off all the weight from the pounds of sugar and fat we’ve ingested.
No where in my training, education or family upbringing did any one ever teach me rituals for completing a year and starting the next that supported and sustained me and set me up for true success until at the age of 33 I sought out a different way. What I learned was:
There is a “different way” to work, operate, create, relate, grow our careers, businesses, families and lives that is really a wiser way…and it starts with how we choose to end and start the year.
Pause instead of pushing on through.
Look back, reflect and gather the wisdom you’ve gained.
Reveal and let yourself feel the impact you’ve made.
Acknowledge how you’ve grown & where you’ve fell short.
Pause to connect what really nourished you this year, so your heart, not your head, so your deeper wisdom not your ego, lights the path ahead.
I call this different way “the Feminine Wisdom Way” for completing and visioning the cycle of a year. Wisdom because it really does show us how we naturally work best as humans. It provides a path for completing and starting the year feeling clear, confident and centered. Feminine because it relies on our feminine power — intuition, receiving, stillness, slowing down before acting — which is not taught or valued highly in our culture or in how most of us design and live our lives, work or family
Regardless of gender, we all have access to this internal feminine power. Without understanding what ‘it’ is and how to work with it, we create realities that burn us out, make us over give and work harder than needed, and make us feel like we’re never doing enough.
Gaining access to my feminine power and wisdom has changed my life, the way I run my business and work, so I stay focused on what matters and what truly has an impact. It’s the path out of overwhelm and burnout. And the path to our fullest expression of power to be the change we wish to see.
As we complete one cycle and start a new year, I was inspired to over the next three weeks share parts of how you can end and start your year differently, rooted in wisdom, guiding you to:
- Reflect on 2018 — and feel good about all you have done.
- Complete 2018 — so instead of dragging stuff — drama, relationships, habits — with you that drain you, you only bring the wisdom and stuff that sustains you into the new year
- Vision 2019 in a way creates spaciousness and intentionality vs. stress or lack of focus.
We’ll start in this post with what I call the Year End “Power Pause.” A power pause is an intentional act to elevate out of your day to day life, to tap into a deeper well of wisdom and gain an expanded level of insight about what is happening in your life, work, health, wealth, and relationships.
Just like smart businesses reflect quarterly, wise leaders (and we are all leaders in our lives) slow down to pause at the natural 4 major shifting points in the year — Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Fall Equinox (which interestingly almost line up with the quarterly system the financial and educational systems run on.)
The year end Power Pause — which is most powerful to do anywhere between Dec 21st and around Dec 31st — is a practice I’ve been doing myself and teaching others for over a decade. What makes it extremely powerful is that it’s not just some coaching thing I made up. It’s based on timeless wisdom passed down for thousands of years that I’ve experienced myself and made practical to how we live and work in modern times.
I’ll share with you here the part of the year end ritual based on “The Wheel of Reflection” which I learned from one of my wisdom teachers, Pele Rouge Chadima, who opened a world of wisdom to me about how the earth naturally works. Why do you want to know this too? Because it’s how we as humans actually work best and one of the most powerful paths to getting out of overwhelm and burnout and creating a career, business, life, family that nourishes you and has the impact you desire.
When you work in harmony with the natural cycles to create and operate, you become empowered to have a larger impact + sustain your own physical and emotional wellness and needs in the process.
Wisdom teaches us to to PAUSE and REFLECT on what has occurred before we start a new year.
What have you accomplished? How have you impacted people’s lives? How have you grown as a person? What was hard? What was joyful? What are you proud of?
If you don’t pause at the end of the year to acknowledge all you have done and become, your brain and body won’t register it’s happened. You will suffer from “Achievers Amnesia” — you forget about how much you have accomplished, grown and given, so you end, start and live the next year feeling like you aren’t doing enough, like you are always behind and like you’ll never have the space to get to what matters most.
When you reflect and receive at the end of the year, what you’ve done registers in your mind and body in a way that doesn’t occur if you don’t pause. Then, feeling grateful and successful on the inside, you gain the power to focus your life force in 2019 on what really matters
Every year, I lead a virtual Power Pause that anyone can attend, which leads you through a 4-part process to reflect and remember what’s been, celebrate all you’ve done, let go of what was hard or fell short, gather up the wisdom and complete the year.
To get you started, here are 4 inquiries I invite you to write down and journal on, or invite a friend to dinner or your partner out for a glass of wine or cup of coffee, to remember and reflect on 2018. Then you’ll be much more likely to start 2019 from a place of strength, clarity and regeneration.
Looking back at 2018 what were the:
- ONE: SUPRISES: What happened that was unexpected or unplanned? Recall both happenings that were wonderful and supportive, and occurrences that were hard.
- TWO: SUCCESSES: What are you proud of? What went well? What were the accomplishments, wins, and stretches you met with victory? Recall both things you have done and also ways in which you have grown, shown up and become a stronger, wiser, more fully expressed, loving and conscious version of you. Don’t focus on what wasn’t perfect or up to your high expectations. Give yourself credit for the way you showed up, what you did that mattered to you, how you stretched yourself, and what you are proud of.
- THREE: SHORTS: What fell short of your expectations or desires?What disappointments or failures happened this year? Losses, disappointments, incompletions, things that fell short of your desire or expectation. Owning these as “shorts” or failures gives you power vs. the failure having the power.
- FOUR: WISDOM: What knowledge and wisdom have you gained over this past year?Presence new insights, perspectives, beliefs, qualities and understandings you gained this year and now will have for the rest of your life.
To receive the full 2018 Power Pause and Reflection Ritual Wisdom Book & Journal and access to the video and audio recordings that take you through the full process, go to www.SuperPowerPause.com. It’s my gift to you and the world to end the year feeling proud, peaceful and powerful so we can all can show up in 2019 ready and regenerated — with the capacity to be the leaders in our lives, organizations, communities, families and world we came here to be.
Christine Arylo, is a women’s leadership advisor, MBA, social impact entrepreneur and three time best-selling self-empowerment author and speaker. She teaches women around the world how to embody their full presence, power and purpose, so they can lead the way to a better world, and better ways to work and live, in a way that supports and sustains them, vs. sacrifices and drains them. Tune into her weekly podcast, Feminine Power Time on ITunes or your Podcast App, or register here to receive her weekly Wisdom Letters.
