New Year’s Resolutions, Intentions, and Manifestations - 5 Ideas for a Magical New Year
New Year’s is more than just a date on the calendar, it’s a time to celebrate new beginnings and focus on the future. Two of the most common New Year’s traditions are setting goals and making resolutions. The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions can actually be traced back to ancient Babylon, where historical records show that Babylonians would hold celebrations and make promises to the gods. If these promises were kept, they believed the gods would aid them during the year ahead.
This practice of making resolutions has only grown over time. The collective focus on new beginnings during the New Year has made it into an energetically favorable time for supporting new endeavors, mindsets, and lifestyles. It also doesn’t hurt that New Year’s falls within the astrological season of Capricorn, the zodiac sign known for ambition, persistence, and achievement.
If you’re ready to set some goals for the New Year, continue reading to learn about five metaphysical practices that can give your New Year’s resolutions, intentions, and manifestations a little energetic boost.
1. Create A Vision Board
Vision boards are more than a Pinterest aesthetic, they are an incredible manifestation method for bringing your dreams into reality. A vision board is essentially a collage of images, words, or objects that represent a person’s goals, wishes, or desires. These can be tangible goals, but they can also represent a particular energy or feeling that you want to embody or bring into your life. For example, if a person wants to embody a more confident version of themselves, their vision board might feature photos from occasions where they felt proud or lyrics from a song that makes them feel empowered.
When you create a vision board, you are working in harmony with the energy of imagination and creativity. An important aspect of creating a vision board is to believe in all possibilities, rather than getting bogged down by limited thinking or excessive pragmatism. Vision boards can simultaneously excite, inspire, and motivate you to take the necessary steps toward your goal, as well as provide a clear idea to the universe about what you desire. So especially if you enjoy crafts, create a vision board for the New Year!
2. Align Your Chakras
Chakras are energy centers throughout our bodies that govern different physical, emotional, and spiritual energy within us. There are seven main chakras that, when in balance, allow us to use and express our energy effectively. Chakras can get thrown off balance though, particularly when the energy of some are high (overactive), low (underactive), or blocked.
The good news is that chakras can be brought back into balance and alignment. One of the primary methods of aligning your chakras is through reiki. Reiki is an energy healing technique that is reported to release negative energy, reduce tension, and lower stress. With hands above or lightly touching a client, the reiki practitioner will channel energy through the body and align the chakras.
What better way to start off the New Year than with an energetic cleanse and balanced chakras? Book an appointment with our professional reiki practitioner at Downtown Tarot.
3. Develop (The Right) Intuitive Routines
The New Year is often when people set resolutions to become more disciplined in day-to-day life. While creating healthy routines can be beneficial, they become intimidating when people feel pressured to maintain a routine that looks good on paper, but is not a good fit for them.
Often in the metaphysical community, people are told: meditate every day. Journal every day. Pull a card every day. And so on…
It’s difficult to do everything every day. For some, doing even one spiritual practice every single day is unrealistic, and that’s okay! An intuitive practice or routine should enhance your life, not create more stress, expectations, or time-management concerns.
If every day is not working, try twice a week. Or every other week. Alternate between journaling and meditating. Find the right combination of methods and timeframes for you. You’ll know you’ve found the “right” routine when you notice it making a positive impact on your life.
Completing your routine should not make you feel miserable. And if it does, you can change it. Especially as time, responsibilities, and priorities change, there is nothing wrong with adapting your spiritual routine to fit your current lifestyle. So, if you are planning on creating a new routine this year, let your intuition lead the way!
4. Be Astrologically Informed
Astrology is the study of the positioning and movement of celestial bodies around the earth, and the perceived influence this has on an individual’s personality, motivations, challenges, and life experiences. Interpreting your astrological birth chart can be a great way to know what sorts of energy or experiences you may be influenced by throughout different stages of your life.
Astrologers are also able to interpret the astrological significance of a place or time, which allows them to examine the energetic shifts occurring for the larger world. Events like zodiac seasons, moon phases, and eclipses, to name a few, are astrological events that you can watch out for throughout the year. These astrologically significant events will often lend themselves to energetic opportunities or challenges.
Being familiar with your birth chart and the astrological events throughout the year can allow you to prepare for or take advantage of certain energies. For instance, there may be an eclipse that is energetically aligned with emotional expression. Knowing this ahead of time opens up the opportunity for you to consciously work with the amplified energy of the eclipse.
Whether it is your first time having your birth chart interpreted, or you specifically want to know what this year has in store for you, book a birth chart reading with our professional astrologer at Downtown Tarot.
5. Expand Your Knowledge
The New Year is a great time to pick up a new skillset, start a hobby, or learn about a new area of study. Especially when it comes to metaphysical topics and practices, there are so many amazing resources to learn from. One of the most engaging experiences we offer at Downtown Tarot are our classes.
Classes offer a collaborative, supportive environment for people to explore different metaphysical topics and practices. Our classes are beginner friendly, providing an accessible introduction to practices like tarot, astrology, runes, mediumship, spell casting, and many more. If you’ve ever been interested in learning about a metaphysical topic but don’t know where to start, consider taking a class this year. You can explore the classes currently being offered at Downtown Tarot by visiting the Class Schedule on our website.
Crystal Fact of the Week
One of the earliest historical records of crystals being used for magic comes from the Ancient Sumerians. The Sumerians also developed cuneiform, the earliest writing system in the world, so that’s extra cool!