Seasonal Intentions at the Turn of the Calendar Year

By Nixa De Bellis | January 2, 2024

The change of the calendar year is a powerful turning point for us physically and psychologically. This time for quiet reflection often highlights what needs to be nourished in us and can amplify challenges. What needs to be nourished and grown can be given deep attention in winter, through colder, longer nights and ever-so-short days. We are drawn to the womb seeds inside us, the attics of memory and the soul’s more tender inner listening to what needs to be birthed when the light beckons us up and out again.

The Yule is a two-month period in Earth-based traditions, comprising all of December and January, supplying ample time to give attention to the deep matter of our longings, desires and needs in the next year ahead. This is the gestating season. Use this midwinter to be in the darkness and feel the feels within, to listen in quietude to the seeds underneath the busy rancor of the world. As a blanket of snow on a farmer’s field offers peace, offer yourself to your inner tending in the way of the fortitude of roots and the potent seeds of the future.

PLAN
Some things planted in the calendar’s sleeping ground ensure a greater balance of body, mind, and spirit and are non-negotiable in this writer’s routine. They are just that effective and have become a consistent part of my toolbox. Other things are entered in the vision forward as wishes and might-do’s. The beauty of our lives depends on how we honor and nurture the seeds that reside in the deepest part of consciousness. Here are a few ways to help you listen to those unique truths and dreams and germinate them as sprouts of new growth in 2024. In this way, it can become a year of your own nurtured creativity.

MAKE RITUALS IN THE QUIETUDE OF WINTER
At the turn of the calendar, it is especially important to take some time to be with the ritual (ideas given at the end of this blog). Make this an annual Yule time wisdom practice for your intentional life, as well as throughout the year. True, vibrant health must include regular physical, emotional, and spiritual practices that are not just booked in your calendar but actualized. Guided by organizing principles of the time in day planners that look forward and journals that reflect, this simple practice of writing things down can help you have a record of how much you accomplished the year prior. It inspires your authentic self to commit to your YULE contemplations and generates a brilliant, intentionally unfolding future.

GET OUT IN NATURE
One of the most healing experiences is making time with Great Nature and developing a relationship with her. How many Sky Lakes have you been to? These local natural treasures adorn the top of the Shawangunk Ridge and inspire painters and hikers alike to dream better. Do you know there are gorgeous waterfalls on established trails to explore in our system of pristine land comprising Minnewaska State Park alone? What is the best hike you would like to share with a friend or a pet? Do you have pet names for special trees or stands of mountain laurel? Will you set a goal to hike/saunter/trail run? How many times per month? Make a list and make records of your endeavors in the wilderness. When you reach the end of 2024, your year review will be glorious with trailhead photos and memories of fresh mountain air we are so lucky to still have here.

GET THE HELP OF ORACLES
How often should one book a deep listening date with our inner guidance practice? Every day. Meditation, contemplation, and self-inquiry are most helpful to our well-being when they are consistent. Daily. Oracle card decks can help prompt us to sit down with a cup of tea and a journal to develop intuition, deep inner listening capacity and inner spaciousness. Every single day. Sometimes, you don’t need their nudge of wisdom. Often, you do. Open to this idea of oracles with a re-read of our 2023 piece on Tarot, SoulCollage and other divination decks. Don’t forget to pay a visit to the shop of intentional goods and healing in Woodstock if you want a new deck to support your inner guidance mining. Lizzie at Everyday Magic has a thoughtfully curated and well-supplied array of oracles and journals with something to please and inspire everyone.

ONE-ON-ONE SOUL ASTROLOGY READINGS + INTEGRATIVE COACHING
Rebecca Conran works with astrology to guide private clients through a year of cycling planet rotations, star locales and moon phases with her unique seasonal soulfulness. Meetings with a counselor are helpful to get in the calendar seasonally or when there is a pressing issue, like the one we found in Rebecca. Read more about her practice in our Exclusive INSIDE+OUT Interview or read one of her INSIDE+OUT Energy Reports.

EAT YOUR BONE BROTH
Fortify with stews, soups and broths! Loaded with protein, immune-boosting amino, and collagen, you can also get to know and support our incredible local farmers. Review this 2023 article, “Nourishing Wellness With Bone Broths.” It’s loaded with goodness, including recipes, all you need to know about benefits, and which of our Hudson Valley farms have great bones!

TRY SALT THERAPY
Enter the restorative microclimate of a mineral-rich pink salt cave. Halotherapy is great for killing germs while offering nutritional mineral support through the skin for the body and mind. Fans circulate the salt in the air for your beautiful winter lungs to stay clear and healthy. Anti-gravity chairs promote relaxation inside the salt brick walls, or you can lie around and stretch directly upon the salt crystal ground of the room, soft as a sandbox. An excursion to sit and relax amidst the salt seasonally is health-promoting while enjoying special time alone or with your besties. The Salt Room in Poughkeepsie can be rented for your group, or you can make a 45-minute appointment during their operating hours. Try a dry salt bath seasonally, monthly, or all winter long. You must have an appointment.

GO ON RETREAT
The high reward of a pilgrimage or even a long weekend’s exodus is plentiful to nurture mind, body and spirit. Winter is the prime time to go the distance to germinate seeds of change in a sacred place. Destination retreats are a confluence of practices, cultures, nature, intimacy, adventure, study, learning and healing. Time away from ordinary daily life, going to and getting somewhere sacred, is sure to restore and inspire. Here are a couple retreats:

Local Hudson Valley wisdom guides Tevis Trower and Nixa De Bellis offer a Pilgrimage to Healing at Villa Sumaya in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala coming this March 23rd – 30th, 2024. Journey to the volcanic banks of a 700-foot-deep lake in Guatemala to practice the intentions of the calendar’s turn more deeply.
Enjoy a deeply nourishing long weekend retreat within driving distance of the Hudson Valley with local retreat mavens Alison Sinatra and Jessica Caplan. The Stillness of the Heart will be a Restorative Retreat for Women that includes Breathwork, movement, singing circles, sound journeys, yin and restorative yoga, authentic connection and more in the gorgeous Akera retreat center in Woodbourne, NY. Curious but don’t know much about Sound Baths? Learn more about “Sound as Healing Medicine in the Hudson Valley” with Jessica Caplan.

PRACTICE YOGA
How often would you like to practice yoga each week this coming year? Just starting?
Moving your body in elegant alchemy makes yoga a more natural and philosophical physical culture than gym workouts and competitive sports. This holistic practice will ignite your mind as much as your body, and the spiritual aspects of yoga make it a beautifully complete system. To commit and stay with it, sometimes it helps to purchase a membership or buy a 10-class pack as a motivating investment. Consider practicing at a studio close to home, and maybe even enlist a friend to join you. If you are new to yoga, learning in person is extra important. Book yourself some yoga movement classes at local studios, such as:

Stone Wave Yoga in Gardiner and Poughkeepsie has a rich array of classes in both locations. Check out our recent interview with owner Liz Glover to learn more about what is offered there.
Whole Sky Yoga in Stone Ridge offers yoga, pilates, barre and qi gong.
Shakti Yoga in Zena, between Woodstock and Saugerties, helps us stay consistent with a robust schedule of classes and also offers teacher training.

READ MORE BOOKS
How many books would you like to read in 2024? Start a list. Independent bookseller Blue Heron Books has newly opened in High Falls to help you make your reading list more interesting and mind-expanding. The benefits of reading, even for 20 minutes per day, are that it improves vocabulary, enhances imagination, expands capacity for empathy and focus, reduces stress and can help us sleep better. Moreover, for more on the stylish and comfort, the Blue Heron Books and events calendar can help you to get reading, socializing + put smart self-improvement into your routine.

BREATHING
On average, you breathe 21,600 times per day. How can you make such a ubiquitous happening a conscious natural medicine practice? Breathing is something we certainly cannot live without, and the quality of breathing greatly influences our physiological, mental, and emotional states. There is a lot to learn about something so ever-present and there are people to learn from around the Valley. How can you generate states this year by putting conscious breathing on the calendar? Check out Breathwork at 4:00 pm on Sundays at Crescent Farm with Jenny Wonderling and special guests.

Here’s a simple New Year Ritual to Plan Your Future

SETTING
Get yourself a new 2024 planner. Find one with lots of space for lists and notes, but that is light enough to carry with you. Consider it a kind of helpful traveling companion and guide that will hold you more accountable to your best and most balanced self. Dot journals, graph paper, or a manufactured calendar can all work. Then, get out some more paper and colored pens. Best to do this work scratching around kinesthetically with old-fashioned writing implements. Get ready to make some lists and doodles in vivid colors. Put on some music, make an elixir of cacao, tea, or mocktail, and light a candle. Wear a special color or outfit. Ask for angels and guides to be with you. Set an intention for this beautiful time.

REFLECT
What happened in 2023? It helps to maneuver across the Yule with plans to create an intentional year ahead by looking back first. This wisdom practice of reviewing your past year gives precision guidance on what to put in the books for 2024. Do it first to examine what happened and what did not happen that is yearning for expression. Noting and recording what you did is the most honest review of your behavior, and if you didn’t keep records in 2023, perhaps this is the year to start, so next year’s annual reflection will be the most accurate. Free write after a look back at your old calendar.

PLAN
Brainstorm what you want less of and more of in 2024. Think of all the genres of activity and life you want to put on the calendar, such as art, music, nutrition, science, literature, activism, etc. Sketch the year, see the seasons, and give yourself an architecture of your personal visions. You can use a vision board or mind-mapping technique here to draw big swaths of concepts.

LIST
Be sensitive when you’re goal and schedule setting. It can be devastating to shoot too high and feel like you’ve failed your attempts. Try creating several lists, such as: “Might-do,” “To-do,” and “Non-negotiable.” All three categories are important to offer yourself. Feel into it. You’ll know.

BOOK 2024
Place all of your intentional discoveries and plans in your fresh 2024 calendar.

Here is a quick list in addition to my non-negotiables above:

Detox the household of chemicals and EMFs
Dance weekly
Meditate every day
Create arts and crafts with your hands
Treat yourself to ______
Dissolve outdated, unproductive patterns
Take cold showers or cold plunges
Sauna
Nap
Build an altar
Forest Bathe
Meet new people and spend time with the ones who mutually uplift one another.
Put these on the calendar so that you can live (and enjoy!) your intentional life.