New Year, New Energy!

Hey everyone!

It’s been a hot minute since I last shared with you and I hope everyone has been happy and well this holiday season. 

I want to talk about a couple of things today. First and foremost I’m going to start off by acknowledging the beautiful event and the most energetically powerful day we were just blessed with the Winter Solstice. For those who don’t know, this glorious day happens every December 21st or 22nd and marks the first official day of winter. It is also the shortest day and longest night of the year (I had a friend years ago who loved telling the story of how she got married on the Winter Solstice just because it was the longest night of the year 😍). Scientifically speaking, just to explain why it is the shortest day and longest night, the solstice is “the instance when the sun is at the southernmost point of its yearly motion in the sky”. There’s a whole lot more to that but I want to focus on and talk about the spiritual significance of Winter Solstice.

The solstice has been celebrated and honored in ceremonies and rituals around the globe for centuries of time. This is when we need to harness this great energy and utilize it to reflect, invite more light into our life, and manifest all the change we want to see. 

Bring light into your home by lighting candles, enjoying a fire, and yes, putting up Christmas lights (next year 😉). It has been said that all of the beautiful lights at Christmas time are tied to honoring the solstice.

Light up your inside by spending time with family and friends and practicing rituals that bring you peace. This is a perfect time to open all your doors and windows, cleanse yourself and your space of bad/negative energy with a sage smudge and then burn some Palo Santo wood to welcome the good energy back in. Take a peaceful walk, meditate, and connect with nature. 

This is the time to cast light on things that have been in the shadows – dreams, talents, gifts, let them be seen!

I also want to talk a little bit about this space we are all in now, the New Year! This can be such a wonderful time but unfortunately can also come with so much stress and anxiety. We have the financial stress – recovering from what we spent over Christmas, and travel anxiety – if anyone did any traveling for the holiday I’m sure there’s concern about catching whatever bugs were out there if you haven’t already. Many of us had family/company stresses and are trying to put our houses and sanity back together. There’s the guilt about overindulging in food and alcohol feeling like we’ve broken all of the awesome healthy habits and routines we’ve worked so hard all year to develop. Then there’s the double whammy of making ourselves feel wrong for having these negative feelings during what is supposed to be such a joyous time 🤪. Listen, I want you all to remember that we can feel and do it all at the same time! Joy and pain can happen simultaneously. The trick is to allow yourself to feel ALL the feels so you can purge the negative stuff and grab a hold of all of the hope and promise that comes with starting a new fresh year. 

First things first, we need to get well! While this has certainly been the season of joy and celebration, it is also unfortunately the season of the ever-looming CRUD, and all of the stresses I mentioned before don’t do us any favors when it comes to avoiding sickness. Almost nothing can hinder our immune systems more than stress and anxiety which is why I think so many of us fall victim to the fall/winter cold and flu season and then the domino effect of passing it around and around – it’s not the weather people! I don’t think I need to tell you that we didn’t have to travel to be plagued with those bugs I mentioned earlier. My family along with so many others has been battling it over and over. During this time I make sure I’m extra diligent when it comes to fending off these winter colds/flu including COVID. Every night before bed and every morning before getting their socks on I rub oregano essential oil on my kiddos’ feet (the most pores we have on our whole body are on the bottoms of our feet and this is the fastest way to topically get the goods into your system). I’ve mentioned in past blogs what an immunity powerhouse oregano oil is. Every day at some point we all have a dose of elderberry syrup but only when sickness concerns are heightened as I don’t want our immune systems to get so used to it that it is no longer effective. The rest of the year we just take a shot here and there with our daily vitamins for a little preventative maintenance. I always put 3-4 drops of the oregano oil in my husband’s and my elderberry (it’s too hot for the littles to take orally). We LIVE for our “hot shot” during this time. I’m also constantly diffusing immune-boosting oils like On Guard, Tee Tree, and Eucalyptus in every room to keep the air nice and clean. My favorite blend for fighting sickness is the F.L.O.O.M. (Frankincense, Lemon, On Guard, Oregano, and Melaleuca a.k.a. Tea Tree). 

I also like to make sure I have lots of easy-to-grab healthy snack options. I always have a Tupperware of cut-up and ready-to-eat fresh broccoli, carrots, bell peppers….whatever your family likes and we dip them in hummus for a quick super healthy snack. Red or purple grapes are a great option too as they are full of antioxidants (wash and pre-pluck your grapes. It makes it much easier for the kids to grab a handful and they last for WEEKS when you take them off the stem). Another fun thing – if you like to cook, I love to make a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup to have in the fridge. It makes for a quick immunity-boosting lunch, snack, or dinner. 

Frustratingly you almost just can’t avoid the crud coming into your home especially if you have littles in preschool/kindergarten as we do. I swear those little guys are crud breeders! Whether it’s one or all of you, you can certainly lessen your sick time and intensity. We definitely got sick as I mentioned earlier, but each hit was here and gone within a couple of days thanks to these few simple practices.

Another thing I want you all to remember is not to perpetuate those stresses by bogging yourself down with obligatory and overly ambitious “resolutions”. I feel like there is so much failure associated with that word. Set some personal goals and intentions that you can actually reach. Don’t try to do it all at once. Pick an area or two to focus on and once those are dialed in, add another. It has taken me YEARS of trial and error to curate the rituals, habits, and routines that I practice today. 

SO! This New Year takes a minute to stop, reflect on your past WITHOUT REGRET and honor the solstice by inviting that light into your life. When we fear our own darkness we cut ourselves off from an essential source of our own personal power. Remember that forward motion is key and darkness can be one of the greatest catalysts for personal growth and transformation so don’t beat yourself up for the sins of the past as it will roadblock those goals and intentions. JUST LET THAT LIGHT IN! 

One of my favorite quotes and quite honestly has become something of a mantra for me lately:

“Serenity is what we get when we stop wishing for a better past”

I believe this to be completely true so let’s all grab that solstice energy and bring in the light to guide us into this new year with all of that hope and promise. Move forward to a bigger, better, and HEALTHIER (physically AND mentally) future, whatever that may mean for each and every one of us.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, happy manifesting, and stay well everyone!

Amber

Sent from my iPhone