Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering ‘it will be happier’.

– Alfred Lord Tennyson

Looking at the wall calendar and counting the days to reach the last day of the year, I discovered that we have only few days left to begin a brand new year. That means, 2021 is leaving us! Right in the next moment, I recalled a social media post that I saw in the month of September. It was written there, “What! 2022 is just three months away! And I am still processing 2021.”

I thought, isn’t it true to me too? Well, I was still planning my year ahead and setting goals for 2021. At that moment, I realized, sometimes, time do flies like a blink of our eyes. For we were caught in the trap of the pandemic and spent most of the time staying inside of our homes, the years seem passing quicker than ever before.

I wonder when I see our neighborhood child to grow up for one year and try to remember how small she was when I saw her at the age of six months. I see her playing in their garden, running in the roads, giggling in joy, and my heart fills with happiness in the warmth of winter.

But, with the new year approaching us, there is also something you feel sad about. That this year is leaving. With the year, there are also leaving a bunch of old things and then someone whispers, “The year is growing old.”

So, how about preparing yourself to say good bye this old year and making room for the new? Worry not, I have brought to you some nice rituals for welcoming a more purposeful new year.

Gratitude Meditation:

This is the first thing you need to do when you sit for your end of year rituals.Sit in a quiet corner of your house and decorate the place with some flowers. Burn some scented candles or incense sticks. Play a peaceful music. Now, close your eyes, breathe deep, and try to recall the good things that happened with you. Say thanks to the Almighty and the universe for gifting you all the little and big beautiful things. Be grateful for having them in your life.You can also have a look at your gratitude journal and re-read it for surrounding yourself with a sense of gratitude. This will bring a lot of positive vibes to your ending days of the year.

Journal Your Reflections:

While journaling your reflections on the passing year, the good things, and bad things, the mistakes, the learnings, the people you met and got to connect, the books you read, movies you watched, places you explored and a lot more, etc. You can also ask yourself these questions for preparing yourself better for the coming year:

What will be my primary focus area of the year 2022?

What will be my wellness routine?

What will be my plans for personal and professional development?

What are my learnings from the past year and I would like to carry them forward to the new year?

You can add some more questions as per your own wish.

Room for Self-improvement:

With each passing year, you grow by one year. Life is all about facing changes and growing with time. So, why not to track your own growth of this year? For this purpose, you can ask yourself this question:

What are the positive changes that happened with me and my life in this year?

You will certainly get some blissful answers; they are your achievement in this year. Celebrate your positive shifts!

Also, you can go to the garden, choose your favourite plant, stay close and sit in front of this tree. Close your eyes, think about your positive changes in this year, what special changes you loved and want yourself to grow in that part, what you still want to improve in the new year, say this all to that plant. Smile, and say, “I will come back here in the next year again this day, until then, wishing you and your friends a happy new year.”

Set Your Intentions:

It’s always a good practice to have some strong wishes and make some resolutions that actually help you to get closer to your goals. So, prepare some realistic intentions of the next year, take some small steps towards your bigger goals, and plan them accordingly. You can write them in your journal, or make a vision board. Please don’t be stressed about the number of intentions you set for the new year.

There is no certain number of goals that could be traced in the previous year and you don’t need to get panicked thinking that you can’t reach beyond them. If you write small numbers, only giving priority to the most important ones, things will become easier to be done and you can approach them peacefully. But there is always room for hope; so you can always stretch your wings and expand your sky of dreams.

Declutter Your Mind:

Just like you declutter your closet at the time of festivals, year end is that time when you need to declutter your mind. New year eve is such a time when you are turning a new page of your life, leaving the past behind.

So, choose a day for a quick meditation. Sit in silence, and leave all the unnecessary thoughts from your wandering mind. Leave whatever feels like burden for you. Let go of the non-essential things and make yourself free from all the shackles that were putting you down.

You can also declutter or re-organize your work desk and rooms for having a fresh look for the coming year.

Practice Manifestation:

This is a beautiful ritual to bid good bye the old year and welcome the new year. Practicing manifestation is like having a deep, quiet, and profound conversation with the universe.

Write down about your fears, mistakes, learnings, new connections, places explored, surprises from life, achievements and accomplishments, failures and success, smiles and joys, aspirations and anything else you would like to manifest. All little and big things that happened to you in this year, write them all. Accept them all.

Now, let go of the things you want to leave behind. Trust the universe for giving you them for a reason. Believe in your growth. Manifest your entirety. Manifest yourself as a part of this universe.

Make An Affirmations List:

Life keeps throwing challenges to us. Every day, every moment is a struggle for us. It is obvious to have ups and downs in the year long journey ahead.

So, I have decided to use regular affirmations for keeping my mental health issues at control. Some of the positive affirmations that I have planned to use are:

• I am valued.

• I am loved.

• I am cared.

• I am heard.

• I am protected by peace.

• I am guided by the inner light.

You can write your affirmations in your journal, everyday or on a weekly basis (choosing a specific day), or you can read them aloud everyday, to remind yourself the power of positivity to be embraced with.

Choose Your Theme/Word:

This has been one of my favorite year end rituals since the last year. The first time I chose my word of the year was ‘Peace’, that I chose for 2021. Inspired by one of my fellow blogger friend, I dragged myself to this practice and I felt so happy after that because it gave me a direction and also a purpose to spend the whole year with focussing on that particular word.

The word Peace helped me to choose the A to Z Blogging Challenge theme of the year 2021. I wrote 26 posts on the theme “More Peace, More Calm“, sharing easy and simple steps to embrace Peace in everyday moments. I spoke about the tasks on my podcast too.

Most surprisingly, it helped me to start my long awaited initiative of storytelling and finally, I flagged off my journey of sharing positive and inspiring tales from across the world. I named it, ‘The Peace Stories‘.

So, I have been thinking about the word of the year 2022 for quite some days, and whenever I was trying to choose from some of my favorite words, I was ending up with the word, ‘Fearless‘.

I never feel ashamed of confessing my fears, my flaws, my mistakes, and challenges in front of others, and I feel liberated everytime I stand up for myself. I face my fears and overcome them. I like to be vocal about my fears and try to conquer them, one at a time.

It’s also true that I still have some more of them inside me, and I am dedicating the year of 2022 to this pursuit of mine. May the year 2022 bring out the fearless me, hopefully.

Here is to another year of peace, purpose, and prosperity.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2022.