JANUARY: Taking Inventory and Setting Intentions
A new year is like a blank page in your journal. In the same way that you might invite yourself to a party, invite yourself to the blank page and start with writing a few simple lists. These lists are celebratory, energizing, exorcising, reassuring, and motivating. They quell your inner critic and remind you that you’ve accomplished so much, you know what you want, you can face it all, and you have everything you need inside you.
4 LISTS FOR 2025
Highlights. With this list, write an Inventory of things you are proud of, big and small. Savor the highlights, the accomplishments, and the completions in the last year.
Low Points. This list is a tough one but a cathartic one. List the stuff that hurt, the losses that stung, the faceplants you didn’t see coming. List your worries, your regrets, whatever is causing you anxiety. We grow and learn from our struggles, so don’t underestimate the courage it takes to make and live with this list.
Toolkit. Reflect on all the hard things you’ve gotten through and jot down the hard-won insights you learned about yourself. Consider also the resources, skills, and practices that carried you through messy-scary times and joyful-soulful times. This list it is the reservoir of strength you can return to and rely on in the new year.
Dreams. Set a timer for five minutes, and in a completely unedited stream of consciousness, jot down every wild scheme, every grand plan, every creative idea that comes to mind, no matter how harebrained or unrealistic.
Share each member’s list of highlights, one at a time. Observe where there are common themes. One list at a time, consider capturing themes or topics you and your group want to revisit later.
Optional exercise. Meditate for a few moments on the Divine Feminine and make her acqaintance. The Feminine is shorthand for the divine force that lives inside you that wants to restore your inner knowing and power. She wants to embrace your messy imperfect, scuffed, glorious and essential wholeness. She has a strong will and a strong won’t. Pause your busy life to kneel by her side and write a letter asking for guidance in that one hard struggle or transition. Therein find solace in the voice you once learned to silence. Don’t overthink it; just begin.
Sign and date your lists! Keep them handy for reference in the coming months.
At the end of 2025, revisit your lists. Compare notes to observe how the universal energies joined forces to assist you and surprise you.
Note: The writing prompts are inspired by Soulika Jaouad’s blog the Isolation Journals, and Kate Bowler’s blog, Everything Happens. The Optional exercise is inspired by Christy Garfield and by Chelan Harkin’s book, The Prophetess.