What does the power of one word mean to you? What would your word be for 2015?
Intention is the first step marking a new direction. Then notice the opportunities that arise surrounding the initial thought is the second step. And finally initiating action, a movement forward into that space being the third step. All three of these steps can be challenging in and of their own right, but it is that initial thought, word, or idea that initiates the process of direction you wish to move into.
A word, an intentional seed... If you were to sit quietly for a few moments and ask yourself, “what word would I choose to define this new year?” ... what would it be?
I have done word choosing for the past seven years, around the time I started to meditate. My life experiences have led me down some precarious, and sometimes scary, paths and some roads felt very effortless. Ultimately they have helped initiate my next steps leading me to where I am right now. Defining a year in one word isn’t the be-all and end all. It doesn’t make or break a civilization, but it is an invitation of energy to create in ways we sometimes never even think about. It starts to outline a shape of the container by which I might slowly take flow into. When I look back on the year past, and my word, I can see what came of it, what has taken hold, and what was sloughed away.
How can we define a moment in time without having, at first, an idea of what it might look like. We offer up thoughts and prayers, incantations, hopes, desires, dreams... but without the solidity of something that might ground them, they remain as smoke does in the air. Wispy, not taking any particular form, and eventually fading. A word, begins to root ideas and thoughts. We can identify with a word as it draws a line back to the original thought. Similar to a smell that draws our memories back to a specific moment, a word calls back the initiation of a desire.
They don’t have to be complex or intricate. Keep it simple and be open to whatever word enters your mind in the moment. This can be the most powerful and significant. It begins to seep into our subconscious and sends out roots of awareness of it’s presence. Often times, you don’t even have to focus or concentrate on the word for too long... it seems to initiate of its own accord.
The second step: “noticing opportunities”, and being open to them, is entering the pathway. As we offer the word with the hopes of something happening, when being aware of what comes up for us to then “initiate an action”... being ready and willing to take movement, to walk forward on this path, the third step. This will solidify the intention. A willingness to initiate and be interactive with what comes up next is key. We have no idea of what can happen from there... only at the end of the year can we truly see and be in the noticing of what has happened and be ready to choose again.
My word for this year is “growth”. After a year of establishing my roots here in Vancouver, I’m now intending on expanding and feeling the growth that comes from this feeling of rooting myself here in this coastal - yogic - healing world. To expand into new relationships on all levels within the community that I have made my home in.
What’s your word for this year?
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