Living in Seasonal Alignment: Navigating the Wheel of the Year and Rejecting the ‘New Year, New You’ Mantra

As I reflect on the arrival of the Gregorian Calendar’s New Year, I find myself in a contemplative space, a space where the conventional excitement of new beginnings feels somewhat at odds with the cyclical rhythm of The Wheel of the Year that guides me to live in seasonal alignment. 

The linear construct of time, marked by January 1st, doesn’t reflect newness and a stirring of life in nature, or the ebb and flow of nature’s cycle. Instead, I’ve found solace in the wisdom of the seasons and cycles of the moon, embracing a more holistic and connected approach to the passage of time. 

Transcending the constraints of a linear calendar 

Like I don’t celebrate Christmas, I don’t get onboard with the hype of New Year celebrations, because they’re just not in alignment with the natural world. Now, this  isn’t a rejection of change or growth; it’s an alignment with a deeper, more soulful understanding of the continuous, cyclical nature of life. 

In honouring the Wheel of the Year, I discovered a profound sense of connection and purpose, allowing me to navigate life’s transitions with a wisdom that transcends the constraints of a linear calendar. 

And it is so liberating. No longer do I feel the tick tock of the clock striking midnight on New Year’s Eve and the unleashing of social constructs to reinvent yourself. 

Rejecting the ‘New Year, New’ You Mantra  

The ‘New Year, New You’ capitalist calendar mantra resounds everywhere, urging people to try something new, set fitness goals, change their appearance or blindly chase any alluring change that promises to transform them into a better version of themselves.

Well, I am calling this insidious bullsh*te out, right now. Fingers in my ears, singing lalalala loudly. 

Just because it’s a new year doesn’t mean you need to reinvent or better yourself. This constant messaging of betterment can see us completely transfixed on the next project, rather than relishing in the moment and celebrating all that you are. 

You are enough, just as you are. No new you needed. 

As much as the broken systems and structures that are harming people and planet would like you to think otherwise, your worth is not determined by the level of your self-reformation at the start of every January. 

Your value doesn’t hinge on the number of resolutions you’ve jotted in your diary or the dramatic changes you aspire to make.It doesn’t mean you need to feel pressure to launch a new offering just because everyone else is playing into this mantra. 

Because you have to trust in the timing of your life and make leaps into change and newness that are in alignment with your own divine timeline. Not because January has been constructed in society in the way it has. 

It’s OK to go slow in January. 

I’ll let you into a secret, we’re still in deep wintering at the moment. Yule is still in full swing, known as the season we winter, eat tasty food and ride out the depths of winter. I’ve never felt like January is a new beginning, but rather its a continuation of going inwards, going slow, hibernating, letting layers shed to make space for newness to start to emerge as we near Imbolc on 1st February. 

Use this time to nurture your ideas, to connect with yourself and your vision of what you want the year to look and feel like. Flirt with the potentiality of all that it could get to be. When you approach it this way, rather than a time of forced changes and disappointment, it makes it a really exciting time of the year. This is how you live in seasonal alignment. 

Make January beautiful 

Think how beautiful January could be if you reject the ‘New Year New You’ concept. 

A month to nurture your creative ideas and feel into what you want to create and offer. 

To feel into who you are. And if something comes through where thoughts that don’t serve you, old parts of you that have to shed to make space for new, then that is the most beautifully aligned way to move through this part of the year. 

Rest is a radical act

You know what, rest is radical. Showing up from a place of feeling good, to do good brings change in the world to shake up all of these broken systems and structures that try and tell us otherwise. 

So here’s to a beautiful and soft January. 

Where we gently move into a new month with self-love, self-respect and the knowledge it’s OK to rest. 

And you know what else is radical? Showing up as your authentic self, just as you are. Because the more you claim your space, the more space you create for others to follow. 

If you’re feeling a gentle pull to get radical and step into your visibility, let’s connect. I see you for who you are, just the way you are and the shoot becomes a soulful celebration of that. 

Here’s to living a year in seasonal alignment.