How to end 2023 in your own style
and be ready for your magical 2024
Hello love,
how are you these days? I was going to start this letter with a shout out to how lovely I think these days are, but I know this period can be hard too. I have a love & hate relationship with this period. I don’t like the dark, grey or snowy days we use to have in the northern hemisphere, but I love the silence and slowing down that comes with this period. It is really like the world is taking a breath in, to sigh out deeply in the next weeks, ready to start over again.
To avoid the grey days I moved to Greece and I am very lucky this year, because the weather on my little Greek island is gorgeous these days. So I go out for walks or bike rides in the sun and the last two days I even dipped in the ice cold sea. My partner always tells me the water isn’t colder than in the summer, but I totally disagree with him. I find it terribly cold and it takes all of my strength to get in. But when I get out I feel so terribly brave ;-)
With this I am already taking a step into the next year, because being brave, bold and courageous will be the theme I’m going to embrace fully in 2024.
4 tips to end your year in style
If you can’t be there, don’t worry, in this post I have some tips for you to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024 with open arms.
Create a writing ritual before the end of the year to write down the:
things you are proud of doing in 2023 (a celebration of the good)
things you are grateful for in 2023 (seeing what and who was there for you)
things you want to attract in 2024 (looking ahead and follow your desires)
feelings you want to experience in 2024 (how do you want to feel on a regular basis)
Create a fire ritual in which you throw away everything you want to say goodbye to. The things you are finally willing to let go after a lot of years, or something that happened in 2023 that you are not very proud of. The fire will burn it all, to make space for new things. You can do this outside with friends and make a ritual campfire, or you create your small personal ritual just you, some candles and a pot to burn what no longer serves you.
This one is for next year (even though you still have some days to join), create a ritual with the 12 Rough nights or the Rauhnächte (in Dutch they call them the Heilige nachten - which litterally means Holy Nights, which sounds more friendly, but completely different from the English and German words). During this period you create a writing ritual related to your dreams. In this period (between 25 December and 6 January) you pay close attention to your dreams and write down every morning what you remember from it. This year I am joining a group and I choose a theme to support this powerful period. Every evening I tune in to one of the Greek Goddesses and let her power inspire my dreams and writing in the morning. When I finish my 12 nights I will definitely post my experiences in another post.
When you are not ready for the next year, or don’t like to look back or forward: Enjoy the quietude of this period; sleep a lot, read a lot, cocoon in your own style, drink a lot of warm cozy drinks and connect with loved ones. Which is actually a good idea for all cold months, but for now, just focus on every day that you can do this, without being distracted by works calls or appointments.
I wish you all the best for a lovely new year, with lots of (writing)inspiration, good health and a lot of lovely people around you. This will be the last post for this year, I hope to see you tomorrow, or otherwise in the near future!
Lots of love, Irene