Sometimes, we have the feeling that the years go by quickly and time is running too fast. As we leave childhood and adolescence behind, the days shrink and we become increasingly busy and caught up in the obligations of daily life. To get out of monotony and anxiety, rituals bring beauty and transcendence to our lives.

Rituals help us root ourselves in the present moment, recognize the passage of time and retain it in an infinite moment. They help us celebrate life. They can also serve to connect with our authentic desires, to awaken the most genuine thing in us and fill our lives with light.

Here we propose three small spiritual rituals for the end of the year, which you can do on New Year’s Eve or around this time, as the closing of one cycle and the beginning of another. You can see what the first end of the year ritual consists of, a ritual to focus on your purposes, in this video:

At the end of the year it is common to make resolutions for the year ahead, which is why we start with a end of the year ritual to put all your energy into your resolutions and encourage their fulfillment. We will tell you about it in more detail below.

We will continue with a end of the year ritual to leave behind the beliefs that limit youconnect with your true desires and awaken your personal magic.

And, finally, we will propose a ritual to connect with the present moment and invoke Kairosthe god of extraordinary time, the one who will allow you to live every day with the magic of the most special days

We will also tell you 3 compassionate research exercises to deepen throughout the year the path that you will open with these rituals and continue creating space for your authentic «self» to emerge and express itself.

Although I propose that you perform the first three rituals at the end of the year, to fill the year that begins with light, also You can do them at any time in your life when you feel like you need to close a cycle. and start again.

1. Ritual for the end of the year «Put all your energy into your resolutions»

In winter, in the northern hemisphere, the lack of light invites us to an internal search. It is the season to retire, rest, reckon with oneself. It is the time for wise witches and magical acts to determine how we want to move forward. The list of New Year’s resolutions is an example of this.

This end of the year ritual helps you release ballast and create space for your new purposes, putting your energy into them, celebrating achievements and looking forward:

1. Ritual cleaning to create space and say goodbye to what you need. Cleanse your space with rosewood, white sage or an incense of your choice and focus while you do so on saying goodbye to everything you want to leave behind in this passing year.
2. With a candle, fill your space and your heart with light. Light a candle to celebrate the light that will increasingly fill the hours and days of this new season. Think about your resolutions for the new year.
3. Of your purposes, choose the priority. You can honor the purpose that is priority for you with a Daruma, the Japanese figurine for making wishes. Keep an eye on him: from now on he will ensure that you fulfill your purpose.
4. Celebrate achievements and move forward. When your purpose has been fulfilled, you will paint the Daruma’s other eye. Congratulate yourself for having achieved it and establish what your new purpose will be.

2. Ritual for the end of the year «Awaken your personal magic»

Dr. Gabor Mate, addiction and trauma doctor, creator of the «compassionate investigation» method (Compassionate Inquiry), states that human beings need two things: attachment and authenticity. And, many times, for pure survival, we renounce the most genuine part of ourselves since childhood. With this, we lose the intimate connection with ourselves: the sincere expression of our emotions, dreams and desires… what constitutes personal magic. We adapt to an apathetic life, giving up the best we have.

Many times, this disconnection has its origin in traumatic events that we had to experience alone, without being able to share our experience with anyone. Thanks to compassionate research, we can regain an intimate relationship with ourselves and awaken the sleeping magic.

Leave behind the beliefs that limit you and disconnect you from your essence awaken the most genuine thing in you and allows you day by day create the life you want.

This end-of-year ritual, which you can do on New Year’s Eve itself, helps you detect them and replace them with beliefs that, instead of limiting you, help you grow.

1. Detect your toxic beliefs. In the last days of December, or throughout the month, write down limiting beliefs on pieces of paper that you repeat to yourself in your daily life or in adverse situations: «I am not enough», «I am not interested», «I am incapable of…». Keep them in a jar and label them «toxic thoughts.»
2. Counter those beliefs. For each negative belief, write the opposite statement on another piece of paper, with messages such as «I am enough», «I have what I need to change», «I deserve to be happy»…Store them in another jar and label it «positive thoughts.»
3. Burn them at the stake. He December 31 at nightempty your jar of limiting beliefs: you don’t need to read them all; You don’t even need to read any if you don’t want to. Just burn the pieces of paper. You can offer the ashes to the earth.
4. Start the new year and then every day positively. He January 1 Open the other jar, and read all the positive affirmations you have gathered there. Create a notebook with them for the year ahead: every morning, when you wake up, start your day by reading one of these affirmations.

«Those who do not believe in magic will never find it.» Roald Dahl.

3. Ritual for the end of the year «Invoke Kairós and live in the present»

According to the ancient Greeks, there are two kinds of time: chronos and kairos. One marks the minutes and hours of daily life, chronos; the other is «extraordinary» time, kairoswhich gives us the magic of being in the right place at the right time.

Kairós symbolizes the time of the gods, that of important acts and events, the time of rituals and celebrations that have an impact on our lives.

The rituals They help us ground ourselves in the present momentto recognize the passage of time and retain it in an infinite moment. Setting a space and time to celebrate, commemorate, say goodbye, transition, start… is to create kairós, a renewing and necessary nutrition for the spirit.

That is the meaning of many of the rituals we celebrate in winter in different cultural and religious traditions, from Jewish Hannukah to Christian Christmas or Celtic Yule. If we turn our gaze to any part of the world, we will find rituals that can help us get through the darkest time in the northern hemisphere. But how to perform a ritual to nourish our soul?

If we do not want to follow pre-established traditions, we can carry out our own ritual and, to begin with, The basic thing is to invoke kairos, open ourselves to the time of the godsthe time of creation. We can do it on the winter solstice, on New Year’s Eve or at the time we choose during this time when the light begins to gain more minutes in the night.

In the Tarot wheel the symbol would be the Magician. For everything to go well, it is advisable to follow these four rules:

1. Slow down: The time of the gods is presence. If you run, you can’t be present, you miss the details and the opportunity. Winter invites us to search within, to retreat and settle with ourselves.
2. Seek clarity. What intention do you have? What is your purpose? Why do you want to perform this ritual? If you don’t know what you want, don’t do rituals. First of all, as the oracle of Delphi prayed, know yourself.
3. Set your limits. If you don’t know how to protect yourself, your ritual can be interfered with by anything in your daily life. Do you know how to say no?
4. Stay present. Where your attention goes, your energy goes. To honor the ritual, disconnect from your cell phone, from everything. In the end, we all become what we focus on.

The longest season of winter is filled with fertile darkness: a cycle closes and a new one begins. What are you closing and what are you about to start?

Compassionate inquiry exercises to go deeper

If you intend to advance along these paths, here are three compassionate research exercises to work on throughout the year. They will help you deepen that knowledge of yourself that allows you to recover your authentic «I», and strengthen the path that will allow you to live in a more authentic and connected way.

1. Unmask your beliefs

The first exercise is assume that believing is creating. What we believe or deny ends up manifesting in our reality, because we unconsciously do everything possible to make that happen.

Our beliefs work like automated programs and save the mind energy. But with this autopilot our life moves forward without a driver. Moved by inertia, we drift from events.

To create true magic and make things come true that are not in our lives now, we need attention. Ask yourself:

• What situations do I attract with my thoughts and expectations?
• What do I expect from life?
• What prophecies am I striving to fulfill without realizing it?

Realize our underlying beliefs It helps us regain power and get rid of obsolete programs. To do this, we must distinguish between perception and reality. Feeling alone and abandoned is a subjective perception, as is believing that no one loves me or that I am worthless.

What have you decided to believe about yourself? When it is a conscious and sought-after decision, that is where the magic begins.

2. Discover the source of your inner voice

The next step is to examine the origin of those beliefs.

• You can follow the thread of your inner voice to a forgotten past, when someone scolded you or made fun of you. That humiliation has perhaps become entrenched within you and influences your life.
• Experiences of shame or fear that we did not share in childhood can block us. Recognizing that episode, assuming it and turning the page frees us from repeat avoidance pattern and allows you to feel again what is really present. And the magic always happens in the present tense!

Tell me what you repeat and I will tell you who you are.

3. Create magic through repetition

The third exercise is to realize that any habit or micro-habit you repeat becomes a force of creation.

• We often do not pay attention to small details from day to day, such as the attitude with which we start the day, with which we go to a meeting or open the e-mail. If every time you walk into the office you think it’s going to be a hell of a day, or if when you talk to your brother you convince yourself that you’re going to fight, so it will be.
• That’s why you can turn it around and decide what thoughts, attitudes and habits you want to repeat to create the life you want. As Robert Brault said, «Enjoy the little things, because maybe one day you will look back and realize that…