Welcoming 2022 with a Little Loving Kindness

Hello, Friends, and Happy New Year!

I get really excited about the first day of a New Year. I love the idea of a blank page.  New calendars, journals, schedule books thrill me, and I love the process of reviewing the old year and planning for the new. I light candles, take shamanic journeys, write in my journal, and read runes and cards A LOT during the final weeks of December.  

And sometimes, it’s a lot. Too much. It gets overwhelming. I can, and sometimes do, work myself into a little bit of a tizzy with all the re-membering and future planning. What starts as a sweet buzz, if not properly fed, watered, and rested, can turn into a flood of remorse over what I DIDN’T get done and a tornado of anxiety over all the things I WANT TO experience, see, and accomplish in the coming year.

When this happens, it’s important for me to slow down and go gently.  One way that I do that is by practicing my own adapted version of the Buddhist Metta or Loving Kindness meditation.  This meditation reminds me to be gentle, and it helps me float back into my deepest values and quiets my chattering mind in a way that simple breath awareness doesn’t sometimes.

As we head into 2022, I thought I’d offer you this guided version of Metta, the Loving Kindness Meditation. I hope you enjoy it.

All my best wishes for the coming year,

Fálki