The month of December, even though often hectic, is one of my favorite months of the year. It’s my birthday month, filled with Christmas festivities and other religious traditions of celebrating light that shines through darkness, cozy home additions abound, and on a good year, there’s snow, my absolute favorite.
December also comes with feelings of grief in longing for loved ones we’ve lost, stress over finding just the right gifts within budgets, and discomfort around family and goals not yet achieved. Rather than avoiding through toxic positivity or sinking into woe-is-me, I allow myself to feel all these feelings, reflect, and plan.
I start making a few moments here and there to reflect on a year that seemed to take forever to get here yet is gone in a flash. I ask myself questions like: what am I grateful for? What am I proud of? How did I get in my own way? What do I not want to bring into 2025? What was I doing when I felt my best?
This becomes my foundation for setting intentions for the upcoming year. What exactly do I want to manifest and bring into reality? Manifest may seem like a woo-woo term, but according to a neuroscientist, it’s all in our brain. Dr. Jim Doty’s work out of Stanford and his own life have shown him that we’ve had the power all along, we just need to start shifting how we do things to make the most of the supercomputer that sits atop our neck.
He shares in a recent podcast with Mel Robbins that we are wired to serve. This he’s based on the evolution of humans and the communities, tribes, and family units that ensured our survival these last umpteen thousand years. When we tie service to what we want and really allow ourselves to see and feel it as real, our brain kicks it up a notch and helps us make new choices in life that get us there.
As this year comes to a close, what is one thing you really want that you don’t yet have? Where do your actions not add up to this thing? What would achieving this provide for others and how would it serve the greater good? Answer these questions in as much detail as possible, see them as real in your mind’s eye, and feel what it would feel like.
When you work to make the dream that’s long been on your heart real, in service to others, you shine your beautiful bright light in the darkness. This light becomes a guide. Not sure where to begin, I’d love to support you here nicole@eloiandstella.com.
