How to Have a Heart-Centred Year

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection” 
~ Gautama Buddha

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
~ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

I’m betting you’ve never had a year where you made yourself – your wants and needs – front and centre to the Universe.

A recurrent theme among my current retreat participants is that each year, no matter what their initial intentions, time slips away and they find themselves (once again…) putting everyone else and everyone else’s dreams and goals before themselves.

But how can this serve us?

I believe it can’t.

I’m not talking about selfishness, self-centredness and egoism. I’m talking about choosing to be good to yourself, to make room for your interests and goals, to speak up for yourself, to meet your needs, and not just feed yourself from the scraps of life after everyone else has dined.

So, if you’re game, I’m going to ask you to do something radical. I’m going to ask you to make a commitment to yourself. Not any old kind of commitment, like the promises we constantly make with ourselves about exercising more or eating less chocolate, which get broken at the first uphill.

I’m asking you to make a sacred promise. This is metanoia – a sacred and unbreakable promise you make with yourself. The kind of promise where our life can radically change, as we turn away from the shadows and put our faces to the light. It’s a promise we commit to not breaking.

You chose when you will start. It can be any day beginning from today until January 1, 2014. And the duration is for the entirety of 2014.

All of us here at my retreat took this commitment yesterday. We made the sacred commitment to live our lives in a different way, by putting ourselves first. By loving ourselves and treating ourselves well – with kindness and respect.

For some it was the hardest promise they have made, after a lifetime of self-neglect, low self-esteem and unworthiness issues.

But I know it is a promise that shall turn their lives around.

Will you join us? 2014 is almost here. This IS the year where everything can be different for you.

Commitment Ceremony

Choose a crystal or stone that resonates for you, and that gives you comfort to hold. Find a clear patch of ground, outside, and stand barefoot with your face upturned towards the sun. Close your eyes, and centre yourself. (How to do that here)

Feel into your heart. And then in your own way, and in your own words offer up your promise to the Universe – a promise that you will love yourself and put yourself first in 2014. A promise that you will take care of yourself, respect yourself and meet your own needs. A promise that you will live from your heart, with integrity and awareness.

It might be one of the hardest things you ever do. I also promise that it will be among the best! Much love to you, ♥ Nicole xx