What’s your favorite New Year’s Eve ritual?

Do you watch the ball drop at Times Square? Do you wear silly hats and blow noisemakers? Do you kiss your sweetie and sing “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight? There are so many wonderful ways to ring in the new year — and no one way is right or wrong (although certain rituals may be regretted the following morning).

This year, my wife and I are going to celebrate with a new ritual (which you can feel free to try for yourself, adapting it in any way you’d like to fit your personal style). Throughout the day, we’re going to write down two types of experiences:

1. Things that we’ve experienced throughout the past year that we’d like to release, and
2. Things that we’d like to bring into our experience throughout the coming year.

Shortly before midnight, we’re going to build a fire (in our new portable fire pit — a Christmas present to each other — yay!). Then, at midnight, we’ll burn the pieces of paper with our wishes.

One of the nice things about this ritual is that we can be grateful for both types of experiences. The experiences that we deliberately release (and don’t wish to carry forward into the new year) have helped us clarify what we DO want in our future.

For instance, I know that I’ll be releasing stress and struggle — so two of the experiences I’ll be calling into my life will be ease and flow. I’ll let go of illness and fatigue and call in health and vitality. And I’ll thank the experiences that reminded me of how important these positive desires truly are to me.

The positive desires reflect the best of both worlds: positive experiences that I wish to continue, as well as new things that I’d like to call into my life. This way, I get to feel gratitude for the joy I’ve experienced over the past year, while also using my creativity to imagine positive new scenarios for the future.

By burning both types of wishes, I’ll release what I no longer wish to carry forward, while also releasing control over the positive experiences I’m calling in — acknowledging that the specific details, as well as the big picture, may be quite different from what I imagine. But however it turns out, I know that there is power in setting an intention and turning over the outcome to something bigger. This is what I’ll be thinking of as I watch the smoke and flames rise into the night sky.

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If you’d like to join me in this process — no matter where you are in the world or in your life — I’d love to hear about what specific ritual you practice, as well as anything you’re releasing or calling forward into your life. However you choose to celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful time honoring the outgoing year while greeting the new one with joy, hope, and love.

P.S. Another great thing about this ritual is that you can practice it ANY time — New Year’s, a birthday, or any day at all. You don’t need to wait for a “special occasion” — you can make ANY occasion special through your intentions…and any ritual that helps to reinforce those intentions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🙂