Photo Credit: Unsplash/Allison Heine
By Arielle Giordano
A simple exercise to step out into a new you.
Looking back on 2018, what do you know and see? What was most significant about last year? What would you like to let go of and release? What goals and changes did you accomplish? Imagine that all of the leftover things you are carrying in your mind, body, and spirit are being released from 2018. Are you are ready for a new beginning? The less you hold on to from the past, the more you will spring forward! Closing out the past year is an opportunity to reflect and release 2018 and have maximum energy in 2019!
To dance outside the lines means to step out of your box of boundaries and get out of your way! As a child, were you taught to paint the sky blue, the grass green, and trees with leaves? While painting or coloring did you follow directions and avoid coloring outside the lines? Now imagine stepping out of your own lines into the beyond and a new you!
Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper, word processor document, or phone device. List your responses for 2018 on the left and goals and possibilities for 2019 on the right.
- List of all the things that you are grateful for in 2018. As you write, open and be in your heart. Feel and fill your heart with appreciation and gratitude.
- What stories would you like to release in 2018? You may want to let go of stories from the past, experiences, patterns, pain, thoughts, feelings, emotions, anger, abandonment, sadness, fear, unhealthy habits, memories, relationships. You get to choose.
- List your dreams for 2019. What will you create in the New Year? How can you fill your life with joy and laughter, health, and happiness? What are your financial, health, wellness, exercise, work, career, relationship, and family goals?
- Be creative and brainstorm changes, experiences, and new ways of being for 2019. Creative expression reaches into the window of the past to know and see the future! Some favorites are: dancing, walking, working out, sharing thoughts and feelings, writing, theater, journaling, making art, building, inventing, doing what you do differently, cooking, baking, being creative, and having fun.
- List your personal growth intentions for the New Year. With awareness, you have the ability to shift into deeper levels. In what ways will you grow and evolve in 2019?
Relax, and be open and soft in your heart!
As you write your lists here are some suggestions: Be quiet and relax into the deeper, inner you. While being present, take a moment for you. Enjoy being in your body. Be aware of the sensory experiences of where you are, what you are listening to, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. Be okay with everything as is. Be with your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. Let go and release pent up energy, tightness, and stress in your body, mind, heart, and soul. Relax into your heart. Be open and soft in your heart. Love you.
Renewal happens when you let it in with an openness and willingness of heart. Enjoy dancing your dreams in 2019, whatever they may be!
Arielle Giordano’s new book, Dancing with Your Story from the Inside Out, was released in March 2017. With a Masters of Arts and Masters of Education, Arielle is an author, professional dancer, inspirational speaker, certified Essentrics/Aging Backwards instructor, and workshop facilitator. She enjoys sharing her gift s and talents with an authentic style rich in the grace of dance, psychology, philosophy and the expressive arts. Her career includes: provisional psychologist, guidance counselor and substance-abuse therapist. As a Lead Faculty Area Chairperson and Faculty Member for College of Humanities at the University of Phoenix, she inspired students with her creative gifts. She also writes for Tampa Bay Wellness, We Woman and Transformation Magazine.