Last updated on September 22nd, 2021 at 04:11 pm
Winter solstice begins today in the Northern Hemisphere.
It’s the time of the year when the sun reaches its most southerly degree from the equator. Winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
I love the Winter solstice. To me, it is real New Year’s Eve.
It’s the day every year where the universe calls us to rise out of the winter darkness into the daylight that a new spring is coming. It’s a unique chance to begin again.
What do winter solstice celebrations have to do with big dreams?
It’s a reminder that you can either begin a big dream journey or restart your big dream if you have stopped. You can choose to leave your limiting thoughts and self-sabotaging ways behind as the days grow long again. Soon you will find yourself smiling at the spring flowers, enjoying the sounds of songbirds and the laughter of children as they play outdoors.
Each day is moving forward from today, the daylight increases by one minute.
What will you do this year with one minute more?
What if you spent just one minute each day focusing on what will improve your situation? What if you spend this time doing one small task that takes you closer to your big dream? I invite you to use this extra minute each day that the winter solstice brings about to work on your big dream.
Think of the momentum you’ll accrue if you choose to spend that extra minute of daylight each day to do something you love, take a risk, start something new, and be kinder to yourself.
In 30 days you’ll be 30 minutes ahead of where you are now. Imagine one gift that you can do each day for yourself–something small that stretches your lips into a smile so big that you breathe in pure joy.
Imagine if you practiced meditating over the 30 days too?
You’d be up to meditating 30 minutes in just one month! All you would be doing is increasing your practice by a minute each day. Think if you started a walking practice in the morning (or in the evening) and just increased it by one minute for 30 days–you’d be up to 30 minutes of walking in a month!
It’s the small steps pilled on top of each other that create significant change.
The problem is that you start your big dream journey with the idea that you have to walk or meditate for 30 minutes on your first day instead of doing one minute of the best that you can. Then you build on this one-minute achievement with small, incremental increases each day until you don’t realize at the end of 30 days that you are doing something for yourself for 30 minutes each day.
Start with a winter solstice celebration or ritual today that exemplifies a beginning to your year of dreaming big.
Light some candles and take a quiet moment to make a list of all that you would like to happen in your life. Look at your dream list each night before you drift off to sleep. Or cut the items on your list into individual goals and wishes and place them in a beautiful jar with inspirational sayings and pull from it whenever you need inspiration in the coming year.
Challenge yourself every 30 days to investigate how you can make one of them come true.
If you’d like to try some other fun solstice rituals to kick off your year of finally living your dream, see my article, 8 Solstice Rituals To Make Your Dreams Come True.
Make the next 12 months the year that you used one extra minute each day to make your big dream come true.
It’s a glorious new opportunity!
Catherine Hughes
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Catherine Hughes is the founder, content director and editor-at-large of 8WomenDream. She is passionate about helping women step out of their own way and strike out into a world waiting for their special talents. She’s a published author and a former award-winning mom blogger. Catherine has helped companies both large and small create engaging web content, social media narratives, and unique blogging platforms. She claims to be a redhead, but don’t hold that against her.
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