#12DOK | INSPIRED BY KINDNESS

How to Choose A Word For 2022 and Live by it

Let’s get woo woo and make this year fun

Does anyone else out there get excited by some of the less conventional rituals of the world?

A couple of months ago I wrote an article all about ceremony and ritual, and how enriching it can be to incorporate and embody rituals into our lives.

Well, I stand by this with every ending and every new beginning in my life. I close the doors on an old chapter by wishing it well and burning my ties to the past so that I can move forward freely. And, for every new beginning, I make a prayer, set an intention, and invite the universe to listen in and share the moment.

Ending an old year and beginning a new one is no exception. In fact, it is a huge opportunity to set new intentions with a fresh heart.

I don’t do resolutions, only intentions

What’s the difference between a resolution and an intention?

A resolution resolves to be different from before. In order to resolve to be different, you have to hold onto a judgment of the thing you wish to be different from.

An intention is when you accept all that has been, all that you have been — flaws and all — and create the vision for the next step, with no need to judge the past. It is open, loving, and freeing in comparison to a resolution.

Set your intention with one word

A lovely ritual that many of my acquaintances in the online business world enjoy is to choose a word for the year ahead.

This morning, I logged into a group that I have had the pleasure of being a part of for most of 2021 and saw an invitation to choose my word — and my phrase — for the year.

As always happens when setting an intention based on one single word for the whole year ahead, I felt this pressure mount; a pressure to come up with the “perfect” word. My instinct was to shy away entirely and avoid such a dilemma.

But then it just came to me. Of course. It was a no-brainer.

Kindness

If you have been following my recent stories, I came up with a completely out-of-the-blue idea just before Christmas, to write a series called Twelve Days of Kindness.

The interesting side-effect of writing daily articles and stories on the theme of “Kindness” has been that it is kind of stuck in my head and hanging around my life on an ongoing basis. So, the word was just there.

Plus — and probably the biggest takeaway — I have been learning how to default into being kind to myself instead of what I now recognize to have been a habitual tendency towards being harsh.

Without even thinking twice, this was the comment that flowed out of my fingers:

The word that came to me is ‘kindness’. Because kindness to ourselves is 100x as productive as pressure, and kindness to others needs no justification.

My phrase?

You’ve got this!

So, if you are to choose one word to describe your intention for the year ahead, and one phrase to give you the confidence and kick-up-the-arse to live it, what would they be?

Don’t overthink it, but let it be something that sits happily in your heart.

For me, kindness was obvious, partly because my inclination was already heading in the opposite direction from being kind to myself. I was already putting unnecessary pressure on myself. So I caught it and turned it around.

Keep your word close at hand

As with every new year’s resolution, a new year’s intention can easily be forgotten about before we are even done with January, so create a viable way to remember it.

Here are some ideas to keep your word and phrase always within reach:

• Write them on post-it notes and place them where you often look; your mirror, your computer monitor, or above the kettle.
• Create an image on Canva with them written on it, and save the image as a screensaver for both your computer and phone.

And my personal favorite because, if you know me, you know I love to scribble in a handwritten journal every day:

• Include them in your journal in some way; either across the cover or at the top of each page.

My journal for 2022 is now named The Little Book of Kindness and subtitled You’ve Got This!

I would love to hear what words and phrases you come up with, and where they end up being written out in your world!

Oh, and by the way…

You’ve got this!

This is Day 10 of my #TwelveDaysOfKindness series. You can find the full list here.

Today’s New Year shout-out has to go to Liberty Forrest, Author, and Witchy. This is what Witchy learned about New Year traditions:

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