The winter solstice is here. It is the perfect time to pause. To become aware of our turning from the dark days of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere towards a journey back into days of more and more light. I also think it’s the ideal time to take stock of the past year, of the events both in our own lives and in the larger world, the tragic and the hopeful.

One of the things I plan to work on tonight is to write out all my fears and anxieties that are holding me back. The next step? To burn those fears, to allow them to dissipate and be cleansed. The last step, to replace every fear with a wish, a hope and a goal to take me into the new year. See more on goal setting here.

Simple, cathartic yet very effective. Fire is such powerful energy and at the solstice, we welcome more of it’s warmth and light back into our lives and a good way to begin is to use some Fire to help us gain more clarity in our lives. Post those hopes, dreams and goals up where you can see them or put them in your diary or journal, keep them close to refer to them often.

Make this your ritual tonight if you can. Light a candle, get quiet, get clear. It doesn’t have to be a very long list, you may only have a few limiting thoughts, or you may have many. Whether you believe in the prophecies of the Mayan calendar or not, I am hopeful that if we are stepping into the new age, we will experience a shift in our global, collective consciousness. There is so much hope, especially if you believe, as I do that our inner joy and wisdom and love can overcome everything if we allow it to bubble forth without encumbrance.

Here are two quotes that I read recently that inspired me this week.

From radiant yogini + consciousness raiser Shiva Rea, a quote from Leonard Bernstein:
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein

and via Semperviva Yoga
“The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war.” – Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit