9 simple rituals to mark the end of the year
Transitioning into a new year with mindfulness, gratitude, and purpose
Welcome! This is the Sunday Soother, a weekly newsletter about compassionate personal growth and authentic living, written by me, Catherine Andrews, a life coach, teacher, and writer. Did somebody forward this to you? You can subscribe to the Sunday Soother here.
Happy Sunday, Soothers! I love me a ritual! Life is a ritual. Rituals are intention. They bring focused attention and space to a desire or to a cultivation, and I've just never been able to get enough of them for meaning making and transformation in my life.
And December is a great time of the year to do rituals for many reasons, including that the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the longest night, takes place this month.
So here are some of my favorite rituals, some I've created, and some I've sourced from other places, to carry you through December.
And make sure to follow me on Instagram, I always do a lot of end-of-year content there, including journal prompts to review the year, reading Tarot for the year ahead, and more!
1. Make a simmer pot. I love to do this to help freshen up the energy in my home for the holidays. Get a big pot/dutch oven, fill it 2/3rds with water, and put in all the holiday-ish things you can think of: orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cranberries, nutmegs, pine needles, whatever feels good and right to you. Bring it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer and let it simmer all day in your house, the steam and fragrance wafting throughout your spaces to nourish the energy. Replenish water as needed.
2. Take a 'self-retreat.' I wrote a guide couple years ago (along with a worksheet) for you to plan out some intentional time for self-reflection at the end of the year, aka, what I call a "self-retreat." If you want to set up your own self-retreat but aren’t sure where to start, I created a self-retreat guide and workbook for you. If you download it, you’ll get instructions and reflection on how to set up the right self-retreat for you this year.
3. Take a threshold walk on the solstice: December 21, the Winter Solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere will be one of the best times to do any sort of ritual that calls to you. I shared a while back on how to do a "threshold walk" ritual that you could do on the solstice: "In the solstice, if you can create the time, consider going on a threshold-nature walk, a practice I recently learned about. You simply choose a spot in nature to walk in contemplatively for a bit, asking yourself, what shall your intention for the coming year be? As you walk, look around where you are, and search for something that can be a threshold. It can be a gate, a fork in the path, a small stream to cross, etc. If you can find nothing, you can build your own threshold out of sticks or earth. Hold a moment before the threshold, contemplating the insight you have decided upon and holding it tenderly in your heart. Then, with intention, cross the threshold. After you cross the threshold, set the intention to then mindfully look for “mirrors” in nature; these simply mean items or things that catch your eye, from a pile of rocks to a cluster of berries on a tree. Pause before the “mirror” that has caught your eye, and ask, “What is this reflecting back to me?” With that in mind, walk home to a nurturing meal or cup of tea and some warm blankets, knowing you have passed the threshold into something new."
4. Create a winter altar (or a summer altar depending on where you are in the world!): Go forage a bit in your local neighborhood. Look for pinecones, nuts, twigs, leaves, rocks that call to you. Bring them home and arrange them on a shelf in your home, perhaps along with some twinkle lights, a candle or two, and enjoy.
5. Give back to winter nature: It may seem like everything and every animal is asleep in this time of year but that's just not true. Scatter some birdseed in your yard, create a nature mandala on your back porch, say a land blessing. Go give a gift to a local tree (fruit, crystals, or even a strand of your hair, along with well wishes and gratitude work well).
6. Try a candle ritual on the solstice: I got this from Sunset.com and I love the idea: "Being the shortest day means the solstice is also the longest night of the year, and one of the original traditions was rooted in candlelight—both for the needed light, and to celebrate the return of the sun in the coming months. Using a tabletop (or your altar!), cover it in unlit candles, either in a circle or a varied pattern, depending on your preference. Then, place a candle that symbolizes the sun (ideally in yellow or gold) in the center and positioned above the rest of the candles. Light the sun candle first, and then the rest of your candles, and you can recite a ritual while doing it, too."
7. Try out feng shui for 2024: Google the Bagua Map, a foundational tool of Feng Shui, and pick one of the 9 life areas of the map that you'd like to improve in the coming year. Lay the map over your floor plan (or just your bedroom) and find the corresponding area. Tidy it up and do some reading on how to shift that area to call in what you desire in 2024.
8. Honor what was lost: This is a good one to do with loved ones but you can definitely do it on your own, too. You’ll need a candle and lighter, and a list of things that have been lost in the past year (names of those who have passed away; jobs; hopes; etc). Choose an order your group will go in (like alphabetical or by age). Have each person, when it’s their turn, explain the following: Name the loss(es) they have experienced in the past year, and how it has affected them. Then, pause, and the individual whose turn it is lights their candle and says something along the lines of, “This flame honors those and that which has been lost, and it also symbolizes the way in which I will honor those losses in the coming year.” Then the individual shares their plans for honoring that which has been lost in the coming year. It could be as simple as regular visits to a loved one’s grave; a charitable donation; or a new way of being you would like to cultivate. After each person has gone, break for conversation, tea, laughter, reflection; whatever comes up. Keep each candle going until your event is over then safely put it out. Light it every time you want to acknowledge and remember the losses and the future hope and honoring you will bring to them.
9. Set intentional and intuitive goals at my annual workshop! Join me on Sunday, December 10th, at 12pmET (replay provided) for 90 minutes of community, picking a word for 2024, journal prompts and instructions on how to set 6 authentic goals for the year ahead. $44 here inside the Sunday Soother membership, which you can just treat like a ticketed event, cancel right afterwards and still get 30 days of access.
235: So, uh, what even IS energy and why does it matter for HSPs and empaths?
Hey Soothers! Even though I'm an energy worker (Reiki, Feng Shui, EFT) and energy is one of the most important tools I use on myself and my clients, I don't think I've ever actually EXPLAINED energy in a podcast episode before. So tune in for understanding more about energy:
What energy actually is, and how we can start to think of it like dust
How energy can positively and negatively affect us
How you pick up energy that doesn't serve you
Why empaths and HSPs in particular need to know about and work with energy
How to start energy hygiene
My favorite energy tools
Ready to learn more about energy and work with it? Come to No Drain December, Monday, Dec. 4th, 7pmET (lifetime replay provided), $27. We'll teach you energy tools used by mystics for centuries that are equally useful in today's modern world, as well as 20 tips and tricks to use right away to create better energy in your home.
Listen to all of my Sunday Soother podcast archives wherever you listen to your podcasts. I have over 200 episodes to binge!
Reads & Recs
Where I share articles, books, recipes, podcasts, beauty products and more that I'm enjoying! (A few links may be affiliate links off of which I'll make a small commission; I only endorse stuff I've tried and loved).
👉 Don't forget I'm hosting a live workshop tomorrow on feng shui, energy clearing and energy protection during the holidays! $27, lifetime replay provided, tix here.
👂 This Spotify sound bath playlist has been really nice to listen to during my meditations.
📘 I recently re-read Michael Singer's book The Surrender Experiment and I just love it so much. It reminds me that there's lots of unfolding, designed by life, that's meant to happen, I just need to allow it.
💸 Another book I enjoyed recently was Tosha Silver's It's Not Your Money. Another good one for support and wisdom as I go on my seemingly-life-long journey of releasing control...
🥣 I rediscovered these bone broth packets at the back of my pantry recently and have been enjoying them as winter comes on. They're perfect for when I'm not really hungry enough for a full meal or snack but still want something warming and filling.
🌟 A must-listen, if you're starting to open up to the idea that emotional pain and repressed trauma causes physical pain and symptoms, from Andrew Huberman: A Science-Supported Journaling Protocol to Improve Mental & Physical Health. This idea that repressed emotions cause physical pain has been very easy for me to be open to but I understand it's not the case with most folks, so hopefully this provides more data and science, plus a "writing protocol" (lol it's just journaling but whatever) on how to begin to ease your physical pain and chronic conditions. You can also read my past essay on this topic, What being a 'goodist' does to your body.
💗 The case for inviting everyone to everything: "In a time when loneliness is more pervasive than ever, why not extend an invitation?" [Vox]
✨ Speaking of this, I think you'd all really like this listen and the woman interviewed, she's got a very Soother-y vibe: The Brain Science Behind Allergies with Misha [Cure for Chronic Pain podcast]
❄️ My favorite incense sticks for winter.
🐦 Steph Jagger is an incredibly talented writer and her recent newsletter resonated a lot with me. Feeding the birds and finding my calling
💯 I got this Old Navy fair isle sweater for holiday wear and I love it soooo much.
🎧 A great listen for anybody interested in accessing their intuition more, but especially leaders and entrepreneurs: Intuitive Decision Making for Entrepreneurs [The Mind Your Business Podcast]
☺️ Really enjoying these sheet masks.
💡 A great post on facts vs. stories especially in leadership, and great for those of us committed to doing mindset work and questioning our automatic narratives. [Pulling the Thread]
💭 Finally, a quote for us to end on together this week:
“The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers, reluctant and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never bravely and completely attempting to enter, never wanting to risk ourselves, never walking fully through the door.” — David Whyte
That's it for this week, sending all my love for the week ahead,
xo
Catherine
PS: Tomorrow, Monday Dec. 4, 7pmET, is a fun event with me and my dear friend Missy. It's a two-hour workshop for highly sensitives to protect and reclaim their energy during the holiday season. $27, lifetime replay provided. Learn energy empowerment, healing for empaths, and Feng Shui tips to keep your energy balanced during the festive season. Join us for community healing and learning and a little bit of fun, too :)
I dealt with chronic back and leg pain for over six years, and journaling plus a few other techniques like somatic tracking is how I healed myself and live pain free now. I'll never stop talking about how repressed emotion can manifest as physical pain!