If you are someone who wants more peace and ease in your life, then it’s time to let go of the standard way our culture enters into the new year.

Instead of starting 2023 like you’re jumping out of the gate at the start of a race, I invite you to remember it’s January.

In the northern hemisphere, we’re only 2½ weeks into the season of WINTER.

This is the time of year when we are meant to rest. Go slow. Evaluate what has been, let go of what no longer serves, and dream into the new.

(We also happen to be smack dab in the middle of a Mercury Retrograde season, so there is an even greater invitation to move slowly and intentionally.)

While everyone else is trying to motivate themselves to make changes and get a jump start on the new year, I invite you to apply a deeper wisdom to this season.

Give yourself the next 3-4 weeks to move at a slower, winter-esque pace.

Go to bed early. Rest and sleep. Let your wake-up time be later if it can be. Ease back in to your life and keep some of the rest and rejuvenation you may have received from anytime off you took at the end of last year.

Avoid the temptation to work late. Instead, listen. Plan. Organize. Imagine. Get grounded into your inner knowing about what will serve you and those you love best in the coming year.

Instead of rushing around or pushing yourself hard, notice what happens when you allow yourself to move gently into 2023.

Notice what happens when you let go of any urgency or pressure.

Feel how your body responds. Watch how your nervous system, your heart rate, and your breathing changes when you release the pressure to have it all figured out and done, NOW.

Give yourself the gifts that are inherent to this slower, more internal and reflective season.

Because this is the time of year to do this. When we skip over it, or rush into action, it’s a lot like skipping winter and entering into perpetual spring and summer.

Each season serves a purpose, and skipping a season has its inevitable consequences.

You might be feeling other things at the start of this year.

If you feel frantic, confused, unclear, and like you’re under tremendous pressure, breathe. Ask where the pressure is coming from, and if it is necessary right now. No matter what your agenda is, or ambitions are, you have time.

You don’t have to hurt yourself to be accomplished. If it is important to you, it will get done. There is always time for what’s important.

If you’re feeling like last year was a giant suck fest and you fear this year is going to be a repeat of the same, it’s important you take 20 minutes to process what you’re feeling and let things go.

Write down what did or didn’t happen last year that’s weighing heavy on you. Write out what you feel you lost or missed out on.

Feel your feelings about it. Cry. Rage. Laugh maniacally. Scream into a pillow or beat the heck out of your couch with your feet and fists.

When you feel like you’ve moved some of that big energy out and through, take some cleansing breaths until you feel at peace.

Then write down what you learned from what did or didn’t happen. What lessons did you receive from what you lost or missed?

Now breathe in those lessons. Find the gold and the gratitude in it all and breathe in what you gained from it, even if it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.

If you want to burn or bury or flush away what you wrote, you can do that. If there is another step to this process that will help make it feel complete for you, do that, too.

You get to start this new year from a grounded and receptive place, free from the burdens of the past, and at peace.

If you’re starting 2023 feeling like you had a good 2022, but now you have to start again, let yourself be in gratitude for last year. Make a gratitude list and revel in what was.

Take note of how the goodness from last year has set you up for more goodness this year.

Take some time to organize yourself and how you will best use your time.

And always, no matter how you’re feeling at the start of this year, always plan for pleasure and the things you love to do.

Make a list of what you enjoyed or had the most fun doing last year. Then incorporate more of the same or something similar into this year.

Plan your year around those fun, meaningful, nourishing moments. Put those things that will truly fill your cup into your calendar before it fills up with responsibilities, and focusing on your goals.

Pleasure, fun, laughter, and play will be the things that stand out most to you in years to come, so prioritize them. Make them some of your non-negotiables for this new year.

Once you’ve rested and eased into this new year, and as mid-winter approaches (which is Imbolc, or Groundhog’s Day, as we frequently refer to it) you will feel a new energy start to rise inside of you.

Like the sap rising in the trees, you will feel that natural inner invigoration that signals spring is getting near.

This is when it will feel more natural to you to take bolder and bigger action. Then it will be time to shift gears and engage with your goals from a more authentic and truer place.

This year, in 2023, you get to design your life from a more aligned and intentional place.

So, be deliberate and conscious with your energy at the start of this year. Save and savor it. Use it wisely.

Let it build so there be will more than enough for all you want to create this year.

May this year be your most self-honoring year yet!

Lots of love,

Alicia

PS: In case you missed it, I’m gifting 3 people in my community with a 35-40 minute coaching session between Monday January 9^th and Friday January 13^th.

I still have ONE remaining spot. This offer is only good between Monday January 9^th and Friday January 13^th.

I won’t sell anything or record you for my podcast. This is simply a special opportunity I’m offering to those who feel they could benefit from some self-honoring support at the start of this year.

If you want to grab this special opportunity for yourself, please reply to this email with one line of what you want support with.

No strings attached. Just two people coming together with the purpose of feeling more alive and aligned in 2023.

Is this opportunity calling you?