New Year, New Intentions: Start 2025 with Purpose
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Even if you follow the Wheel of the Year, the start of new calendar year is often a good time to to pause, reflect, and set intentions for the months ahead. Whether you’re into goal-setting, manifestation, or just making small, meaningful changes in your daily life, January offers a blank canvas to create the year you desire.
Here are a few ideas to help you kickstart 2025 with clarity and purpose.
1. Set Intentions, Not Resolutions
Let’s be honest—New Year’s resolutions often feel like a to-do list you’re bound to abandon by February. Instead of rigid goals, try setting intentions. Think about how you want to feel this year—peaceful, energized, focused? Write those feelings down in a dedicated journal like this beautiful guided journal. It’s an easy way to stay aligned with what truly matters.
2. Create Rituals to Support Your Goals
Small daily rituals can help you stay grounded and consistent. Light a candle each morning as you write your to-do list or meditate for 5 minutes before bed. I try to clean up my living space before I go to bed each night. This includes doing up any dishes and cleaning the kitchen counters, picking up my living room and washing/folding/put away the laundry. Now, I don’t do this EVERY night. But when I do take the time to tidy up, I feel much better when I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning.
3. Refresh Your Space
If you feel like you need more than just a tidy up, taking time to declutter your home can help signal a fresh beginning. For me, a cluttered home leads to a cluttered mind. If you feel overwhelm at the thought a of a deeper clean, try starting small —organize your desk, clear out your pantry, or finally tackle that junk drawer. To make this easier, I like these style of storage bins and this organic cleaner (it smells amazing!)
4. Prioritize Self-Care
Self-care isn’t just bubble baths (though those are nice too). It’s about nourishing your mind, body, and soul. Carve out time each week for yourself—whether that’s a yoga class, a long walk, or reading a book that inspires you.
I’ve recently started cutting back on caffeine and switched to these calming tea blends as a way to show myself some self care. I was enjoying a dandelion tea from the same company, but then discovered it has caffeine in it, so that is reserved for intermittent use.
5. Stay Connected to Nature
Winter can feel isolating, but connecting with nature—even in small ways—can lift your spirits. Bundle up and take a walk in the snow, set up a bird feeder outside your window, or bring some greenery indoors with an easy-to-care-for plant like a pothos or snake plant.
If you want to incorporate more natural elements into your daily routine, check out this set of seasonal intention cards for Imbolc to stay in tune with the cycles of nature in the coming months.
Ready to Start Your Year?
The New Year is an opportunity to reset, realign, and reconnect with yourself. Start small, stay intentional, and celebrate every step forward—no matter how tiny.
Which of these tips will you try first? Let me know in the comments! Here’s to a magical and fulfilling 2025!
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How I am Celebrating Litha
Hello Friends,
I hope this finds you well and able to enjoy the absolute beauty of early summer. It’s been a dark week here in the US, but for better or worse nature proceeds on her own schedule, even when hearts are broken. I have found some much needed comfort in the trees and flowers and blue skies overhead. A hawk calls out unseen in the distance, while squirrels chipper to one another while dashing around the lilacs and rhododendron bushes, and a pair of cardinals call to one another from their nest in an old pine tree next to my back porch. The sun shines and the rain falls. And we are here. Together.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I tend to celebrate the Wheel of the Year as more of seasons than specific holidays. So, as we approach the official start of Summer and the season of Litha, I thought I’d share what I’ll be up to over the next few weeks.
Litha as a Time to Connect
I think of Litha as a time for connection. Connecting with the earth, your friends & family and yourself. For me, this is more important than ever, coming out of two years of relative isolation at home. I am an introvert by nature and it is very easy for me to slip into solitude for weeks at a time. And while I do recharge from having time to myself, I find too much of it leaves me feeling lonely and a little sad. So, in the spirit of Litha I am going to take some time to connect with the people I care about, tend to my gardens and do some deeper self care work in areas that I have been ignoring.
Connecting With The Earth
I intend to spend some meditative time clearing some overgrowth from one area of my garden. An invasive bittersweet vine has taken over and slowly smothering several trees and bushes. It’s one of those things I that I keep meaning to get to, but never do. So this weekend, if all goes as planned, I will cut back the dead overgrowth to make room for new life.
Connecting With Friends and Family
A dear friend is going through some tough times right now, and so I plan to send a handwritten note and a small gift and let them know that I’m thinking of them. I have also set some dates on my calendar for June to spend some time with adult children, who are busy with their own lives now.
Connecting With Myself
I’ve recommitted to my yoga practice for the month of June. Over the past few months I’ve completely gotten out of the habit of daily yoga and I can feel the difference. I’m stiff and sore from too much sitting or too much exertion and not enough stretching. My mind is also stiff and sore. I find myself plagued with anxiety and ruminating on unhelpful thoughts much too often these days. I do yoga as much for the emotional work as the physical. Lest you think I am some kind of yogi - let me be clear - I am not. I don’t go to classes or retreats. I just follow along with Yoga With Adriene on YouTube. Nothing fancy. But it works wonders!
This week’s free printable is 5x7 Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson from his poem Merlin’s Song. I love to print these types of quotes and pop them in a frame and change them out each season. This one will go on my desk in my office. I hope you like it!
I hope that you are able to plan something special to celebrate the summer solstice. Please feel free to share what you’re up to in the comments. Also, I’m going to keep the official Mabon House IG shuttered for now, but if you’d like to see photos of my gardens (and my cats), please feel free to follow along at Lorri From Maine on Instagram.
Take Care and I’ll see you next week!