Would you like to begin 2024 feeling peaceful, clear, and connected to your purpose?
Here’s my end of year journaling ritual, which I pair with restorative yoga.
Take it at your pace.
Take whatever part of this ritual is helpful and leave the rest. If you prefer to meditate and reflect, there's no need to write or draw. If you want to skip the asana (yoga postures), that is also fine. Simply sit with your breath. If you prefer to do the end of year ritual on the winter solstice, I highly recommend that too.
To enjoy the ritual with others in an online workshop on New Year's Day, register here.
Gather Cozy Props. Everything is Optional:
- Your coziest pjs
- Cushions and blankets
- Yoga mat and blocks if you have them
- Something to write or draw with
Use this process to guide yourself inward. Open, and then listen to, your supported heart. Trust it to guide you towards love and truth in the New Year.
Reclined Heart Opener
Lie back over cushions supporting your upper back and head. Check that your chest feels open and lifted, your lower back neutral and comfortable. Cover up with a cozy blanket.
Breathe in and out of your heart.
When you're ready, roll to your side. Then ease up to sitting.
How is your heart? Get quiet. As a feeling arises, label it without judgment.
- Ask your heart, “How can I support you?”
- Ask your body, “How can I support you?”
- Ask your mind, “How can I support you?”
- What is the biggest gift in your life right now?
“I feel like I am entering the new year building on my strengths, rather than clearing aside old habits and pledging to start from scratch! I know that my yoga practice, and your teaching, made the difference.”
-Jeanmarie M., Compassion Club Member
Prone Belly Breathing
Lie on your belly to encourage digestion of not just food, but also experiences. Breathe to your belly.
As you metabolize your accumulated stress, it is like wiping away dust from a windowpane. Clarity affords us the ability to see reality. Viveka (Sanskrit) is discrimination and clear vision. When you see clearly, the obstacles to love and truth are wiped away.
When you’re ready, press your hands down and press your hips back to child’s pose, or ease right up to sitting.
Look back at the year with clear vision — Viveka.
- What memory are you grateful for?
- Think of a struggle you had this year.
- What about that struggle makes you grateful?
- What gives you pleasure that you can expand this coming year?
Side Lying Savasana
Lie on your side in a cozy fetal position. Support your head. Go through your body, inviting each part of you to relax and settle into gravity. If you like, you can listen to a guided body scan.
When you notice that you feel rigid, unclench that part of your body. You may choose to intentionally tighten your muscles from head to toe to help them remember how to release.
Sit when you are ready. Look forward with clear vision, and meditate or write.
You don’t need any more prompts.
Trust your supported heart to guide you towards love and truth.
Want peace and purpose in 2024?
New Year's Day Yoga, Purpose, and Pajamas Workshop
If you'd like to share a practice like this with a welcoming group online on New Year's Day, we're having our annual free New Year's Day Yoga in Pajamas Workshop on January 1.
Click here to register free
Settle into cozy support. You will move gently, breathe mindfully, and connect with your purpose for 2024.
This workshop is live on Zoom and a replay will be provided.
Invite Your Loved Ones to Join You:
It's free, and anyone can join.
Click here to register free
Wear Your Jammies:
Roll out of bed, brew your favorite warm beverage, and you're ready. It's ultra casual.
Hi, I'm Kate!
I'm a yoga teacher who helps highly sensitive, empathetic people self-regulate so they can feel more joy and calm. Since 2002, I’ve empowered thousands of students to feel more grounded, focused, and relaxed. I love teaching simple calming tools that you can access no matter how chaotic your life is. My little neurodiverse family lives in a magical land called Brooklyn, AKA Lenape Territory.
Healthy Happy Yoga is a welcoming online space to breathe and open up to connection.
We’re breaking cycles to co-create a more inclusive future.
Replay of the 2023 NYD Workshop
Click here to register for 2024 free
Stop Walking On Eggshells!
Gentle yoga to release your stress and shift your mindset about struggle.
If you get your buttons pushed often by other people's issues, you may be hypervigilant. You might feel it in your body as clenching, tension, or chronic pain.
You'll become more grounded in awareness of your body.
