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Writer's pictureClaire Sheehan

New Year and Choosing Self Kindness in 2022

Happy New Year! I hope your Christmas has been full of kindness to yourself and others. How has it been? With both Christmas and the between times and New Year, it can feel tricky and need all the self kindness tools we have to hand to remember to take good care of ourselves alongside all the expectations of society and others about how we do things.


Are you a New Year Resolutions Person?


I feel mixed about New Year and New Year's eve. I must say. Especially New Year's Eve which I often feel a bit down during - I think its that weight of expectation, a feeling we should be doing something, should be doing things a certain way or going out to celebrate. I got to thinking about just being kinder to ourselves and using kindness as our starting point about what we want this time of year to look like. In the meantime, I always feel that sense of excitement and anticipation about a whole new year to look forwards to - whether you want to create a resolution of some kind, or an intention, or have a mantra or word of the year - be kind about what feels good and right to you right here, right now.

Today I thought I'd try out my card deck to inspire me for the year ahead - I came away and put on a relaxing CD and sat in the quiet and pulled a card for the year and 12 for each month of the year. I'm going to share them here as a photo and I'm going to be thinking about how I can use their guidance to shape my 2022 and how I can become kinder to myself this year.



It feels fitting to have a theme of resting in the universe as my main intention for this year - in 2021 much of the year felt like a kind of between times, a shifting after Mum died at the end of 2020, a recognition of the impact anxiety has on my every day, and of needing to do more to rest and realign to what is important to me at the moment. Finishing the year with nearly two months of cough, colds and chest infections has meant more rest than I would usually give myself and it has reminded me just what a challenge it is for me to allow myself that mindset that it is OK and needed to rest and relax. I am a do-er - someone who thrives on helping, getting things done and ticked off, and often causing me to burn out when maybe approaching it differently would have been more sustainable and caused less headaches and burn out.


I'd love to hear if you've used the cards in this way and will be talking more about it as we move further in 2022 - tag your instagram pics of you using the cards with #choosingselfkindnesscards - so excited to hear about what arose for you and how it resonates.

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