One of my favorite things about having developed a sub-specialty in Ericksonian hypnosis is its emphasis on the power of language to bring about positive change. This particular approach to hypnosis encompasses a language of possibility, and offers messages to our deeper creative wisdom to promote states of mind and being that move in directions of healing and empowerment. A related approach, about which I’ve written before, is called “solution-focused” therapy. It, also, addresses the language of possibility by emphasizing what’s going in a desired direction and then engaging in perspectives and activities that will keep things moving in that direction.
As I thought about the New Year, I found myself thinking in terms of what’s gone right this past year, especially in the presence of so much alarming news reports. And so, I’d like to invite all of us to engage the following process as one of the ways we can move into the coming year with the support of greater awareness.

Rather than thinking in terms of “New Year’s resolutions”, beginning a new cycle of any kind offers an opportunity to review our fundamental intentions and sense of meaning and purpose, and reinforcing the intentions we want to continue to carry and move away from those that don’t serve us in ways we want. And so, begin by thinking back over the past year and take some time to note what you learned – what skills you may have developed, what understandings may have deepened, what breakthroughs may have moved into your process if you’ve undertaken a healing journey.

This experiment comes with a caveat: Allow yourself to engage it without judgment. This isn’t an invitation to label things as “good” and “bad”, or “right” and “wrong”. This kind of judgment limits the process and runs the risk of its becoming a way to focus on what went wrong and what’s wrong with you. Instead, I hope you’ll take this as an opportunity to offer yourself a deeper sense of the quality of life you’d like to live, and the tone of experience you want to support for yourself – and to remember that each day offers a new opportunity to become more skillful, to learn more about what works for you and what doesn’t. Each day is a day of practice, and any mistakes you may notice are, themselves, invitations into greater skillfulness, just as any successes can bring awareness of how you are developing new, more constructive ways of being.

To review the year in terms of what worked for you and what you have learned gives you an opportunity to build on these things in the coming year. Are things moving in a direction you like? If so, what might you do to continue to move in that direction? Are there things that you’d like to change because they didn’t feel good or lead to outcomes you don’t want in your life? What might you do to bring about those changes? Again, the process will be more powerful for you if you avoid judgment and, instead, hold an attitude of creative curiosity. The more awareness you can bring to the choices you make, and to the responses you have, the more you’ll be able to actively move in the directions that enhance your quality of life – both internally and externally.

Click Here for Other Weeks in This Series:

Home Page