Choosing Courage – Cheers to 2022

Instead of focusing on all that I’d like to accomplish in this new year, or the things about myself I’d like to change, I am instead choosing to place my attention on how I want to feel. While I believe that setting goals and holding aspirations are valid and worthy of contemplation, I find that how I feel is a main driver for how apt I am to achieve those goals or work towards my aspirations. So, the feeling is where I must start. 

As I wrote in my last post, 2021 was a year of much worry, fear and anxiety for me. Part of this was due to the pandemic we are all still moving through, part through the decision to step away from work and instead take time to travel, and in part due to all the upcoming change that awaits me in 2022. Fear, worry and anxiety will still bubble up for me in this next year, of that I am sure. But I am hoping to move through and release these feelings with more grace and ease. 

So, how do I want to feel in 2022? Well, I want to feel more open, hopeful and confident as a start. I want to feel creative, energized and excited about the opportunity that each day holds for me. I want to feel more rested, more at home in my body. In 2022 I want to feel like I can let go of this incessant need to find fault with myself, or my life, and to instead trust that I am exactly where I need to be. I want to feel as though I am living in a state of gratitude and abundance. Just writing on these feelings evokes a sensation of really enjoying life. And, enjoying life breeds more reasons to continue enjoying life. 

What will it take for my 2022 to embody more of these feeling states?

Courage. In order to inspire more feelings of openness, hope, excitement, confidence, abundance, creativity, energy, rest and gratitude, I will need to summon up and employ courage. The courage to wake up each morning and live in the emotion of the life I desire, to live in it now exactly as I am … not one day when x, y, or z is different. Courage to choose my thoughts wisely, for it is our thoughts that drive our feelings. Courage to check in with myself regularly and consider what conversation is taking place in my mind. Courage to recognize when fear, worry or anxiety is holding me back and to do something about it. 

This week I am turning 30. Next week I am moving to a new state, where, as of now, we still don’t have a place to live. Additionally, I am currently in the “job hunt” as they say. For me, all of the aforementioned events can provoke a lot of that old fear, anxiety and worry that I am desperately trying to move away from. This is where courage comes in. Fear has me thinking of all that I am leaving behind, and worrying if I will be able to create community and find ways to  access nature (especially snow) as an outlet for my well being. When I choose courage I look to all the opportunity that this move holds for us, all the new adventures to be had! Fear has me worrying that the next 30 years will be a time of less freedom and more monotony. When I choose courage I see turning 30 as the mark of a new era – all that I’ve learned over the last 30 years has brought me closer to a place of real self knowing. Fear makes me feel as though I will never again find a remote job in the education sector. When I choose courage I recognize that this job hunt simply means that I have the freedom to be mindful and intentional about where I choose to go next in terms of my career. Fear is what I want to leave in 2021. Courage is what I’d like to bring with me in 2022. 

My word for 2022 is courage. The intention I have set for the year, that encompasses this word, is “to take on each day of 2022 with courage – courage to choose the thoughts that support the most evolved version of myself and the creation of the life that I most desire.” And to affirm this intention, I will recite to myself as often as needed, “I am a woman of courage, open to all the opportunities that each day holds for me and excited to be actively creating, and living, the life I desire.” 

In order to feel the way I hope to feel in 2022, I need courage. And how wonderful that courage so elegantly juxtaposes what I hope to leave behind in 2021 – fear, anxiety and worry. With the release of one, I make room for the other. 

If, like me, you’d like to first start with addressing the way you’d like to feel in 2022 (which will ultimately affect the achievement of the various goals or aspirations that you hold) then I encourage you to journal or reflect upon the following:

• How do you want to feel in 2022?
• What do you need in order to support those feelings?
• Is there an intention that you can set for this year that centers around what you most need in order to feel the way that you desire? 
• Is there a word that embodies your intention? 

Once you have identified it, come back to your word daily and let it both guide and anchor you through the next 365. 

Cheers to 2022.