As we step into 2020 together, I’m sharing some ways we can use Sea Soul Blessings to start the new year with more confidence, peace and compassion.
Each Sea Soul Blessing card captures a quality, an experience, a feeling that can be found in and around the sea.
And we can use these to offer ourselves a moment each day, simply to mull on these qualities and connect to the sea.
That simple process can both ground and lift us – just as the sea does. And support us to develop the resilience and clarity we need to step into the year ahead.
CLOSING 2019
On New Year’s Eve this year, I found myself struggling to look towards the new decade with a spirit of hope and celebration – too many events in 2019 had left me feeling fearful and despondent – the worsening state of the environment, the rise of the far right, the apparent lack of compassion and honesty from those with the greatest ability to make a positive difference.
I realised that before I could step, heart open, into 2020, I needed to find a way to release 2019. So, to close the year, I drew myself a Sea Soul Blessing card – asking for guidance: what quality would help me to say goodbye to 2019 in order to start afresh?
If you’re finding it hard to see a positive way forward right now too, you could try this with your own cards. If you don’t have any cards yet, try using the card I drew: “May you find balance.”
Spending a little time thinking about this card led me to ask – what might I need to do or change to close 2019 with a greater sense of balance?
Staying stuck in the pain of the many challenges of the past year – and seeing these stretching ahead into 2020 – was blocking my way forward.
To find balance, I needed to seek out the other side. I needed to include all the moments of joy and positive transformation as I reflected on the year. And embrace the understanding that we are always in a state of flow, nothing is forever, everything changes.
In looking for balance, my attention was drawn to ebb and flow, pressure and release. To looking beyond the surface of my first response, and perceiving all that was happening above and below this.
The blissful photo here is a lovely example… It captures my first experience of getting back into the sea after breaking my foot and ankle this summer.
Yes, it was pure magic. And I was also wearing a huge boot under the water, and experiencing a lot of pain. In this moment, the kids were peaceful. But moments before, they were playing up. Our Galician surroundings were stunning, but also challenging for someone who couldn’t walk very far.
Life was both wonderful and hard. As it always is.
Nothing is all good or all bad. As I accepted that, and found balance, I was able to let 2019 go.
A GUIDING CARD FOR 2020
Head clear, heart open, now I was ready to choose a card to guide me through the year ahead…
Now you’ve probably seen people choosing a ‘word of the year’ – selecting one word to use as a simple clear focus to guide them through the year ahead. Well, this year, I’m using Sea Soul Blessing cards in a similar way: Selecting one card – one sea quality – to focus on this year.
Choosing a guiding word is different to making a new year’s resolution.
There’s no specific action (like giving up a specific thing, or doing something else). So there’s no fear of disappointing yourself or failing in some way.
Instead, a guiding word evolves alongside us. It’s something simple to hold onto when life gets foggy – a tool to guide us through the choices we make in 2020.
A guiding card inspires you to grow towards it. To go deeper into your understanding of what that particular sea quality might mean to you in 2020. And as the year progresses, we keep coming back to this word, to this feeling, this blessing. In a spirit of curiosity – about where and how we can connect to this in our lives right now.
And usually, your journey with that particular word or quality doesn’t unfold in quite the way you expect…
CHOOSING YOUR CARD
How you choose your guiding card for the year ahead is up to you.
You could take time to consider each of the blessings – laying all the cards out and seeing which sea quality you are most drawn to. Notice which sea qualities light you up, make you feel excited about the year ahead, or bring you a sense of calm and clarity.
If you don’t have your own set of cards or book, you can get some over here – or scroll through our recent posts on instagram for some ideas.
You might choose to go back to a card that you’ve drawn and appreciated in 2019 – one that you’d like to explore more deeply. Or to read the descriptions in the book and see which most answers your need.
Like me, you could simply trust the sea to show you what you need in the year ahead.
If you’d appreciate some more direct help and guidance, I’m offering ‘guiding card for 2020’ readings by donation this week, and you can sign up for one of those over here. I’ll choose you a card, and record a short audio with some thoughts on this – inspiration to step forward into the year ahead with that focus in mind.
As for me – well, I drew a card for this year, and the sea chose for me: ‘May you feel alive’ … so I think it’s going to be another epic year!
MONTHLY GUIDES
Here’s a final idea for a way to use Sea Soul Blessings to help you step into the year ahead…
The future can sometimes feel daunting, overwhelming – too vast to imagine. Choosing a card for each month can help us to see the year ahead as a series of evolving experiences instead. It breaks the year down into accessible chunks, and helps us to visualise it as a series of opportunities to learn and explore.
It makes us curious about what’s to come. But leaves enough space for all sorts of discoveries yet to be made – for me, it’s a process that’s both grounding and freeing.
And again – it’s a useful reminder of the ebb and flow of our needs and desires, an awareness that these will change and evolve: nothing is permanent, and there will always be something new to learn.
I drew my twelve cards at home, and then did the same for a lovely friend on the beach on New Year’s Day, but you can do this any time you like – it’s never too late, start where you are. You don’t have to choose a card for every month – you could choose one per quarter or season – by moon cycle or school term. You get to choose whatever shape fits most easily into your life right now.
You can also use the monthly process as another way to choose the guiding card for the year ahead. While drawing your monthly cards, you might find that one of them resonates more deeply. That’s your cue to choose that card as your guide going forward into the year ahead…
I’ll talk more about all of this online this month – including how we can combine our guiding card with our monthly cards – as that’s another process that’s helping me already. This month I’ll be looking at how ‘may you find lightness’ might help me to engage with that quality of feeling alive…
THANK YOU
And as this new year begins, I’d like to thank you for all of your support in 2019. And for still being here in 2020.
I hope we can continue to inspire each other to bring the sea’s magic into our lives every single day. And work together to heal the sea that we all love.
Most of all, I hope that this post has inspired you to think more about the many ways in which you’d like to connect with the sea this year.
Because it’s magic – that we all need.
Wishing you a bright, sparkling, brave and hopeful year ahead.
If you’d like to get some Sea Soul Blessings of your own, you can get them over here.
MAY YOU FEEL ALIVE
The sea is all-encompassing sensation, exuberant vitality, constant movement. It is stepping consciously over edges. To walk into a cold sea is to know the limits of your physical and mental capacity, and to choose to live a little of your life right there.
May you delight in vitality. May you pursue adventure. May you test your limitations. May you feel all the feelings. May you love and leap. May you tingle.
Bring it on…