Letting Go & Attracting in the New Year! By Chahna Gupta
There’s something about New Year’s Eve that I look forward to – and that’s our family tradition!
Every year, we all gather around a fire pit. We all go around and talk about how the past year has been for us and then go through the numerology of the upcoming year and what kind of energy the year will bring.
With that said, I give everyone a piece of paper. I ask everyone to take a moment and reflect on the last calendar year. What were the lovely moments? What were the difficult ones? What did you accomplish? What did you struggle through?
On that piece of paper, everyone writes down three (3) things that they want to let go in the new year and three (3) things they want to attract. The things that you want to let go of could be things like anger, lack of patience, procrastination, grudges, resistance to change, your job, or pretty much anything else you can think of. The things that you want to attract can be more opportunities, patience, energy, yoga, meditation, new friends, travel, career opportunities, and more. It’s hard to pick three!
After everyone has finished writing down their goals, we can choose to share what we have written down.
Fire is a symbol of release as well as attraction. When we do yajnas, we are offering something or sacrificing something – so it’s a release to attract something. When we look at Ayurveda, our digestion in our belly is considered our agni, our fire. Here, we metabolize and create. So, after taking another moment to look at what we have written down, we all fold up our papers and throw them into the fire. Sometimes, we don’t get to use a firepit so a candle or any sort of flame works!
Another tradition we do, this time on New Year’s Day, is that we look at a list of priorities. We actually have two lists and do both of them one by one – so you can do what we do or pick the one that resonates with you!
Both lists comprise of seven priorities. I don’t remember where we found these – so if you know, please let me know so that I can credit them!
The first list of priorities include: Health, Economic Security, Resilience, Personal Development, Achievement, Freedom, and Inner Harmony.
The second list is: Wealth, Wisdom, Friendship, Fame, Power, Freedom, and Enjoyment.
We write the date on the top and number our papers from 1 to 7, with 1 being considered the top priority and 7 being the least. Once everyone has reflected on the priorities and has placed them in order, we all compare what we wrote to each other and then compare it to what we have written in previous years. When we do this year after year, we get to see how our priorities have changed.
I encourage you to try our tradition and see what you think. The best thing to do is reflect again when your birthday comes around or midway through the year to see how you’re progressing and where your mind is at.
Happy (almost) New Year! Here’s to wishing you abundance and blessings in 2024!
About the Author
Chahna Tailor Gupta, an Ayurvedic Practitioner and certified yoga teacher, has a background in occupational therapy and health science with a focus in public health. Chahna was yoga trained in Rishikesh, India and had ayurvedic clinicals in Kannur, Kerala. Chahna provides yoga, pranayama, meditation, 200-hr yoga teacher training, and ayurvedic health counseling services through her company Namaskar To You. Chahna is a volunteer for Ekal Vidyalaya, American Association of Ayurvedic Professionals (AAAP), and Ayurveda Association of Florida (AAF). She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Ayurvedic Medicine while continuing her self-studies in yoga.
