Begin Again

Ready to step into a new year? Here's how we do it! Plus, a special gift (for all!) to make your new year shine.

Season’s greetings, friends. For those of you following along with the journey of letting go, we have reached the ascent… which is glorious, enlightening, and the perfect way to begin the New Year!

If this is the first post you are reading in this series, use each of the prompts to think about different aspects of your life and how you want them to feel in 2025.

Below you will find instructions for the ascent and a beautiful New Year’s workbook I’ve been using and sharing for years now… it never gets old.

Note: this is a previously scheduled post. I am on my long winter’s rest and will return to “live” posting on January 7.

For the past seven weeks you’ve been traveling down into the dark, examining and releasing parts of your psyche until you are simply a spark of soul.

Now you get to rebuild yourself. You will come up through the seven gates and at each gate you have the opportunity to choose what to pick back up and what to leave behind.

Here’s a reminder of where you’ve been and what you imagined releasing each week:

Gate 7: Your earthly and material self. What thoughts do you want to release about your body so you don’t carry them forward into the New Year?

Gate 6: Your soul’s path. What preconceived notions do you have about why you are here? Are those ideas serving you? Are there any thoughts you need to leave behind?

Gate 5: Your tribe, the people to whom you belong and who belong to you. Are there relationships you need to release or refresh?

Gate 4: Your heart’s armor, your emotional protection. Are the ways in which you have guarded your heart working for you? Do you want to pick them back up or are you ready to explore something new?

Gate 3: Your wealth and the sense of security and physical protection it provides. What ideas about wealth or money do you want to pick back up and which are soooo 2024? What are other ways in which you can find an inner sense of safety and security? What money-mindsets serve you and which need to be released?

Gate 2: Your forms of self expression, whether that be your voice or some other way in which you communicate (like through artwork). Are you expressing yourself in the ways you wish? Do you feel like you’re communicating well with others? If not, what forms of self expression might you leave behind in the coming year and what new forms might you call in?

Gate 1: Your vocation, your work in the world. How are you feeling about your work? If it’s not feeling like a good fit, what can you do to make a change within your current situation or how could you make plans to shift your work life entirely?

At each gate, contemplate what you want to reclaim. Imagine holding the energy you are taking back in your hands and pulling it into your body. Reconstitute yourself, choosing what to keep and what to leave behind, in the way that feels right and true at this moment. What I mean by that is to put down your judgements of who you should be or who you were in the past and, instead, consciously choose who you want to be moving forward.

While not as grueling as Inanna’s journey, writing a weekly newsletter is something I’m returning to after a decade away. And it is a journey— an exploration— of myself, how I want to communicate, and what I think matters in the world today. Thank you, with all my unguarded heart, for helping me find something true.

Here’s my New Year’s gift to you.

Click here to download my New Years eBook. It is an invitation to step a bit deeper into yourself and to walk more joyfully in the world around you.

Wishing you peace, laughter, and serendipity as we begin this New Year. Happy 2025.

xx Maia