I recently celebrated a birthday. Mine to be exact. I love my birthday and the older I get the more exciting it is for me. It really is a blessing to be alive, and birthdays for me are like a testament to living your purpose. If you are not dead yet then there’s lots you still have to do for yourself and for humanity as a whole. Once that is done then your time is up. So yeah, every birthday is a big deal for me.

A practice that I started when I turned 30 and has worked for me for the past 6 years is setting my intention for the new year and finding a word that serves as a constant reminder to stay on track for the rest of the year. This word helps to make decisions that add value to my purpose for that year. 

Last year was all about growth. And growth does not happen in a place of comfort. Growth only happens when you place yourself in situations that challenge you, at times pushing you to your limits. Growth means letting go of old habits and learning new ones. Growth also means you may have to shed off a few people, especially if they are not actively contributing to your purpose or if the only thing they bring to the table is negativity. Ultimately, growth means having hard conversations with yourself about yourself and deciding what steps you are going to take to experience a new reality.

So, in summary, that was the last year.

Last year presented itself to me in many ways, the most significant being creating this platform. This baby was on my mind for years before she came to life. Read about it here. 

The other big thing was stepping up how I parent, snippets of which I have shared here. The biggest intention was to have unlimited time to spend with them small humans. The pandemic happened and I was granted the opportunity to do this. To be honest, I have not taken full advantage of it. I mean, we hang out but I really could put in more effort in that department. This has been carried forward into this year’s intention, only the format will be different. I feel like we, my humans and I, could be hanging out in more meaningful ways, beyond the mundane (like TV watching). These are the two big things I will share for now, but trust me the entire list of things was long.  

After setting up my intentions and putting them out into the universe I said prayers about them to the person upstairs. We talked about stuff that truly came to pass exactly as I had wanted. (With the exception of Ms. Rona – that shit blindsided all of us!)  But every other thing, truly, the person upstairs delivered on a silver platter, which was mind blowing. I was still stuck in a box filled with doubt, skepticism and lots of fear. But guess what, growth makes you do shit afraid. Here we are exactly a year later and everything in the checkbox has been ticked.

Elevate. This is the mantra for this year. What does elevation look like? I don’t have specific plans yet, but do have ideas on how it could happen. So this being the year of elevation, I am scared to have that conversation with the Creator despite knowing They are going to come through for sure in a mighty way! This is largely because I have doubts about my capabilities to make these things happen. This little faith in myself persists despite having exceeded expectations last year. 

Maybe that convo with the person upstairs will happen today, maybe tomorrow but the thing is I can’t run away from myself forever. At some point this week I will have to sit down and be very clear about what I want for this year and how it is all going to happen. Remember I mentioned I don’t have a plan yet? 

While spending time on the interwebs over the weekend I came across a quote stating that this is the time to be choosy about the books you read, the people you spend time with, where you put your energies into, because all those things build your story. All those little things define who you are. All those little things subconsciously feed into the decisions you make. Something else I read online was, and I quote, “I used to walk into a room and wonder if they would like me. Now I walk into a room and wonder if I would like them”. Yo!!!!! I felt that in my soul. More than anything it was like a statement speaking into how I should move into this new year, since the plan is to elevate and shit.

Elevate. I believe that the energy we put out is the energy we receive. That we have the power to speak things into existence. That we have the ability to attract and manifest things into our lives. This is not always an easy thing to do, especially when I am in a dark place mentally, emotionally or spiritually. It has been a struggle living this truth in the last couple of months. That energy to summon nice things my way was out the window. And yet, these are the moments when the humans around me have extended grace and kindness in ways I did not expect. Family, friends and my love have been showing up for me even without my knowledge. Aside from gratitude the only thing I can do is to pay it forward. 

Back to energies, elevation for me in this new year probably means also vibrating at levels that are aspirational. Higher energies, higher vibrations and learning to discern traits that may drag me down. I know this sounds like some illuminati madness. I promise it is not. I suspect I am not doing a good job putting it into words, but it makes sense in my head. Poleni.Lets just pretend we are all on the same page tihihihihi.

This is just the beginning. I have the next twelve months to figure it out and make sure this happens. Like I said, no plan as yet. Indulge my curiosity for a bit. Do you set intentions for the year? Be it on your birthday or at the end of the calendar year? Everyday perhaps? Do these intentions build up on each other or are they purely to serve a specific purpose?

Let me know in the comments below.

Ciao!