Starting 2023 With Letting Go

Mars and Mercury are both retrograde, this energy feels more like slowing down , introspection and letting go of the old then initiating and pushing forward with something new now at the beginning of the year. 

Living a life of self-love also means to listen to our body and the energies around us and not try to force something on us just because the calendar says it's January 1st or the beginning of a new calendar year. 

What you'll discover 

• Why we right now are more feeling like slowing down, introspection and letting go of the old rather than starting something new, even though usually on January 1st we are fully motivated
• How to do a 2-part Love Tour through 2022 and how that helps to start 2023 in a positive way.  
• The supportive energies of Mercury retrograde when clearing clutter. 

Have you set resolutions for the New Year, or Intentions, are you ready to push ahead with all the improvements that you are hoping to make?

I've read over 50% of people are making resolutions but 25% have already forgotten about them after the first week of January, and only 40% are still working towards their goals and resolutions after 6 months. I wrote about this here on my blog before and I talked about on the podcast.

The thing is, just like I said last January, this time of the year, in the middle of winter, all I want is to hibernate just like nature. Maybe you feel the same?

Give yourself permission 

Living a life of self-love also means to listen to our body and the energies around us and to not try to force something on us just because the calendar says it's January 1st or the beginning of a new calendar year.

We start 2023 with two important planets being retrograde. One is  Mars - the planet of action - that is still retrograde until later this month, so that does slow us down for sure and tells us, it's not the right time to push ahead with something new.

The other planet is Mercury that just went retrograde last week too.  

So to me the message is clearly, to allow ourselves more introspection and slowing down, we are asked is to do more planning and more letting go before we embark on action.

A Love Tour Of The Past Year

Growing up on January 1st there would always be on Swiss TV a review of the past year, the highlights of the good and bad that had happened. And that's basically what I do myself now every January 1st too. 

I do a review of the previous year, to get clarity of where I want to go for this new year and I call this process a Love Tour (last year I shared it with you here)

My process is constantly evolving so I wasn't doing the exact same process like last year, but it's very similar with a few tweaks.

Just as I encourage my clients to take a love tour through their cluttered home, or through their messy finances even if they think there is nothing to love about their home, I ask you to take a love tour through 2022 but we are not being Pollyanna that's why the love tour always has two parts.

Part 1 - what we want more of

We start with finding the positive, what do we want more of:
Take some time and reflect back and remember, appreciate and be grateful for all the positive that has happened in every area of your life. find the good, find the beauty that came with it even if it was a challenging year, find the things that did work out even if you feel you didn't have a good year. 
Write those things down and be grateful for it, and this is also what you want to create more of in the future right? 
This helps you to get clear on what you want more of - be crystal clear what you want more of. Now we move to part 2 of the love tour: 
Part 2, what do you want less of
- what do you want less of from now on? 
- What wasn't working in 2022?  And I am mostly talking about the things we have in our control here, not necessarily about the outside world where we have absolutely no control over
- whas there a major life lesson? Sometimes those life lessons come in a challenging dress but a life lesson is always something positive and to be grateful for in the long run even if we can't see or believe that in them moment. Write it down and if you have an idea what the lesson could be write that down too. 
- what was stressing you out in 2022, what frustrated you? 
- what were you tolerating but will not want to tolerate anymore? I did an entire episode about tolerating btw, it's episode 139 
Now that you have written down what you want more of (part 1 of the love tour) and what you want less of (part 2 of the love tour) 
see if you can find a common theme of what you want more of and what you want less of in the future so you can get even more clarity and can condense it into a few bullet points. Some examples for me 
- I want less consumption and more creativity and action- less distraction and more focus- less seclusion and more connection
And now, because Mars the planet of action and forward movement is retrograde and also Mercury is retrograde we start with the letting go, in a way  with what we want less of. 
So here is your action plan for this first week of the new year: 
1) Do the two-part-review and Love Tour of 2022 - this doesn't have to take long, I am sure you know exactly what you want more of and what you want less of
2) listen to episode 92 about Decluttering during Mercury retrograde. I talk about how and why the time when Mercury is retrograde is really advantages to clear clutter and to finish things up. 
3) Find things to let go of, to declutter, or find things that need fixing, in every area of your life and business as I talk about in episode 92. Just remember to only pick small manageable things or areas to work on, to start with the least emotional or challenging things and keep in mind that a few minutes a day keep the chaos away. You can change your life in a few minutes a day. 

And that my friend is exactly how we reach any goal and finish any project which includes of course any decluttering or organizing goal and project. 

Opportunities to work with me 1-1 are available. Send me an email at conny 'at' connygraf dot com or schedule a complimentary Chaos to Peace Consultation and we'll see if working together is a great fit.

Don't worry, I'll never be pushy or talk you into hiring me.