Beginning the new year is a necessary time of transition, and many people believe that how you celebrate New Year’s Eve will set an example for your upcoming year. Although our culture puts an enormous focus on doing something extra on New Year’s Eve – champagne and fancy attire or the ball dropping in Times Square — many yoga enthusiasts seek the most profound method to celebrate the space between the old and the new.
If you’re looking forward to a different New Year’s Eve type, why not consider some rituals? Rituals for the New Year are significant for those looking to find greater spiritual connection and satisfaction in this time of transition. If you’re celebrating New Year’s Eve in a group or on your own, I’ve compiled seven rituals to aid you in honoring the present year and welcoming the coming year with the proper enthusiasm.
Why You Should Give New Year Rituals a Try
A ritual is a typical sequence of events of profound significance. From a yogic point perspective, traditions influence our consciousness at both the physical and subtle levels. The changes in our consciousness can manifest in thoughts, feelings, choices, and bodily sensations, which often radiate across the universe surrounding us. Rituals also provide physical advantages, easing anxiety, boosting confidence, boosting attention, and improving emotional stability.
Yogic Rituals to Enter the New Year
Rituals must not be complicated or long to be effective and efficient. The following seven rituals can be altered to meet your specific requirements or preferences or paired together for greater impact. Try to determine the combination that works best for you. And may you enjoy a calm and awe-inspiring new year’s Eve!
Meditation
One easy and powerful method to close one year and start the next one is to meditate in meditation. You can do it alone or with a group of other friends. Choose the kind that will bring you to the most tranquil state and peace, and choose the length of time you’d like to commit to it. Set some candles and incense, and plan to conclude your meditation before (or shortly after) midnight. When you watch the clock, strike twelve, and enjoy the peace and tranquility you are experiencing.
Fire Puja
Puja is a religious ceremony to welcome the Divine into your home so that you can receive blessings and pray. One particular type of initiation to a Fire puja includes releasing negative energy. Fire pujas are an effective way to let off things that no longer serve your needs and allow room for the New Year’s goals and goals. The fire puja ritual can be as simple as writing down your thoughts or using sheets of paper to note your ideas that you’d like to release and then put them into your fireplace or an open bonfire.
Kirtan
Kirtan is among the primary methods in Bhakti Yoga–the yoga of love, grace, and devotion. Kirtan is a call-and-response method of chanting in the course of which a word or phrase is repeated. If you ca unable find a New Year’s Eve Kirtan near you, get together with your talented musical friends to join a kirtan at home or listen to the tracks of the kirtan artists Krishna Das or Snatam Kaur. I’d suggest arranging for the most energetic song to occur at midnight so that you can begin the year with the most beautiful, ecstatic joy.
Sharing Circle
Another wonderful way to celebrate New Year’s Eve is to gather your friends in an informal sharing circle. Gathering with friends to discuss experiences and triumphs over the last year and contemplating the things you want you could bring to the coming year can be extremely positive and therapeutic.
To organize a circle for sharing, invite your family and friends to come over and arrange your space so that everyone can see one another. Conduct a short practice, then rotate sharing an inspirational quote, poem, or New Year’s goals. You could also set aside just a few minutes for everyone to share their personal experiences of the previous year that has brought them the most optimism or gratitude.
Journaling
Take the time to wrap up your present year and prepare for the new one with a thorough new year’s Journaling session. It could be a collage board, a note to oneself, or a list of the top 15 things you are grateful for in the year.
Prepare ahead by making a list of potential topics for writing, like:
What were your top achievements over the past year?
What were the biggest obstacles and most valuable lessons learned during the past year?
What have you done this year that you’d never attempted before?
Was there something holding you back that you could release?
Do you have anything that you regret or want to let go of?
Intention Ceremony
New Year’s resolutions are often a little self-defeating and negative. Concentrating on only what we’d like to improve about ourselves could make us feel that we’re not worthy of the person we are. The best way to approach this is to establish the goal of establishing a Sankalpa or plan for the coming year. The Sankalpa you choose to set can be any positive trait you want to nurture in your life!
Make sure you schedule enough time to think deeply and reflect on the last year’s challenges. After you’ve identified an enlightened positive, concrete, and measurable goal, write the New Sankalpa down and hang it where you’ll be able to have it in your mind daily.