And so one calendar year comes to a close! Sometimes, many times, the end of December brings me quite naturally to reflecting on the time that has passed and the time that is coming. So if you are craving some richness this time of year. Or, if you simply don’t want to go out and are looking for something to do (Hehe!)— I’ve got you covered in this episode. Stay tuned as we explore my favorite, fun and/or reflective, but always soul rich practices for taking stock of one year and turning into the next.
Show Notes
Yes, tell me! How the heck do I tell the difference between the voice of my intuition and my “fear-based” ideas? Download the free audio here.
“44 Signs You Are An Empath” free download
“Empath—How To Tell If What You Feel Belongs To You” free download
For more about Aimée, her work, readings, speaking, or classes visit www.AimeeCartier.com.
And so one calendar year comes to a close! Sometimes, many times, the end of December brings me quite naturally to reflecting on the time that has passed and the time that is coming. So if you are craving some richness this time of year. Or, if you simply don’t want to go out and are looking for something to do (Hehe!)— I’ve got you covered in this episode. Stay tuned as we explore my favorite, fun and/or reflective, but always soul rich practices for taking stock of one year and turning into the next.
Show Notes
Yes, tell me! How the heck do I tell the difference between the voice of my intuition and my “fear-based” ideas? Download the free audio here.
“44 Signs You Are An Empath” free download
“Empath—How To Tell If What You Feel Belongs To You” free download
For more about Aimée, her work, readings, speaking, or classes visit www.AimeeCartier.com.
And so one calendar year comes to a close! Sometimes, many times, the end of December brings me quite naturally to reflecting on the time that has passed and the time that is coming. So if you are craving some richness this time of year. Or, if you simply don’t want to go out and are looking for something to do (Hehe!)— I’ve got you covered in this episode. Stay tuned as we explore my favorite, fun and/or reflective, but always soul rich practices for taking stock of one year and turning into the next.
MUSIC **Ayla Nereo, "All of this" song clip**
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Do you crave clarity and insight? Do you sense that your intuition is trying to tell you important things, but you have a hard time trusting it? Do you want access to your own internal wisdom, and to understand how it operates so that you can guide your life in ways that are meaningful and satisfying?
Well then, welcome, I’m glad you are here.
I’m your host, Aimée Cartier. I’ve been a professional psychic, since around 2007. I’m the author of the book, “Getting Answers: Using Your Intuition to Discover Your Best Life.” I’ve been teaching others to understand and use their own intuitive and empathic abilities for more than a decade.
Join me each week for true stories and tools that will inspire you to take seriously, your own inner knowing—that internal sense that you have uniquely tailored to YOU and designed to not only set you on the roads that are best for you but also help you avoid the ones that are treacherous.
It’s time for you to OWN YOUR INTUITION.
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Hi, Welcome. If you are a regular Own Your Intuition show listener you know that I often start out by reading some of the comments I’ve received about past shows.
This week I got a text about last week’s episode (number 18) that said, “I laughed until I cried—the image of you dancing is gonna stick with me for awhile!”
And another from Kim who said, “I just LOVE your podcast. I just listened to the episode on visionaries (number 18) and so much resonated with me and so many thoughts came to mind. I’m thinking again about “positionality” and those who are “safe” to be radical disruptors and those who are not. I’d love to chew on this more. Thank you for your wisdom and insights. I am a new follower of your podcast!” She followed the comment with some heart emojis. My favorite!
Thank you – as always to those of you who reach out to tell me how the show has touched you. I value every kind comment. And to those of you who continue to tell me you are sharing my podcast with others. Yay!
So this week—I want to talk about mining the richness of the end of the calendar year.
Starting in my twenties every year around this time I used to think about how this calendar end, dead in the middle of winter, seemed so arbitrary to me. It doesn’t coincide with any natural seasonal changes. And the older I’ve gotten I’m like, “we’re supposed to want to whoop it up and get together with blowers and streamers in the height of winter at midnight!? Who wants to stay up that late when it’s so dark and this time of year is naturally taking you inward!? Perhaps it is lame, but in the last decade I’ve actually been to a handful of New Year’s Eveparties that ended BEFORE midnight! Haha! And I didn’t mind AT ALL!
I still feel that way I guess—how the end of the calendar year seems to coincide with— nothing. But I guess I also don’t care anymore either. Some years I am inspired to use this moment, this end of a particular year, to reflect.
You all have already heard me talk about (in episode 16) how I find this time of year so rich with goodness. How much I love the silent velvety darkness of these winter days. If you haven’t had a listen to that episode— you might find it comforting or inspiring, especially if the winter months are hard for you.
Since we’ve passed the Winter Solstice I know it’s already getting lighter, even if only by seconds each day. But—it’s still dark. Where I live it’s really dark. Not only am I far North in Washington State—so sunset is around 4:30PM. But on the island I live practically the only streetlights we have are IN our two block small town. We don’t even have one green, yellow, red stoplight on our whole island. We have about two blinking red lights that hang over what we call our Highway (haha) and are intended to remind you of important stop signs that you are approaching—and that’s it! So this time of year when we circulate from place to place at night it is DARK. For real dark. Like practically how dark must have always been before the industrial age. Except for all the Christmas lights of course—which do make an impression! Just anecdotally—if you are listening to the Own Your Intuition Show from afar—we actually have a pond on our island that is shaped like a deer. And at this time of year, the perimeter is lined in white lights—with a red light for a nose! I’ll put a link to some pictures of it in the show notes. It’s pretty special. It’s definitely worth a drive down Cemetery Road at night if you live here.
But I love this darkness. It turns me inward, over and over again, year after year, what I naturally do this time of year is look inside. With the blanket of night all around– the evenings beckon me to reflect, knit, and do other creative activities, enjoy my family’s company by the fire, and to sleep more and earlier. It’s honestly one of my favorite times of year—this darkness is so rich and cozy to me.
I happen to have a lot of family who live in Alaska—which is even darker (longer) than it is where I live. The sun is rising in Anchorage these days just after 10AM and it is setting around 3:41PM. One of my aunts sent this completely picturesque photo of their cabin at night to our family WhatsApp group the other evening. Their cabin is located in the middle of nowhere Alaska. I’m making that name up of course—but there are no roads into it—it is that isolated. They use a snowmobile or a four-wheeler to get there. In the picture there was snow, the dark almost black of giant evergreen trees at night, and a beautiful wood cabin with a few strings of Christmas lights strung on the deck—all set against the midnight blue of night. One of my cousins, Diana, who grew up largely in Africa commented saying, “Having not grown up with seasons I don’t really miss them (she currently lives in Costa Rica)—but I do appreciate the beauty and the variety and recognize the feelings they garner inside of me. This photo makes me cozy, calm, and warm inside.”
Perfect summation of this time of year I think!
Like many others, the end of December also brings me quite naturally to reflecting on the time that has passed and the time that is coming. So if you are craving some richness this time of year. Or, if you simply don’t want to go out and are looking for something to do (hehe)— I’ve got you covered in this episode.
This is Aimée Cartier and you are listening to the Own Your Intuition Show. And today we are talking ideas for making the most of an ending (of a calendar year) and a new beginning of one.
My passion, exuberance, and depths of my end of year reflection ebbs and flows from year to year. But today I’m going to talk about some of the favorite practices I’ve had throughout the years.
My all time favorite is “The Bucket List.” Invented by one of my sisters and step-mom. Or at least invented in my world by them. They may have got the idea from elsewhere. Your bucket list is where you put all of the things that you’d like to do in the next year. The way that I, (we) have used this is that it is not an “I must clean the garage” type of list. It’s for the things that bring you joy. Curiosities you have or experiences that you think might be fun or enjoyable. And/or things along these lines that you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t gotten to OR would like to do again.
For example, one year I had on my bucket list, “Pay solid attention to my herb garden. This means: plant cilantro and dill continuously so that we have it all summer. Plant several batches of parsley. Water! And figure out the best way to dry and store our garden spices.”
Even though it is a To Do item— it’s an activity that brought me joy. And something that every summer prior I had thought—"I wish I had done that! I wish we had a fresh batch of cilantro coming up about now.” Or in the winter months, “I wish I had harvested more of our Oregano this year.”
This year, if I do a Bucket List, I might have, “Plant flowers in the Spring.” I always get to the propagating of my annual flowers late. I know I’d have a better crop if I actually planted them in the spring instead of waiting until half-way through June or even beginning of July to do so. Again, this is something that actually brings me joy—the flowers do. So, it makes the list.
I remember in years past, my sister and step-mom would have “Try a certain recipe” on their list. Since I LOATHE cooking, this kind of thing never makes my list—but you get my drift. The bucket list is comprised of small actionable items that you could actually accomplish within the next 12 months. It’s neither obligatory in nature, nor is it something giant like, “Start a global movement.” I mean I suppose YOU can use your list however you want. But I want it to be satisfying and doable so I leave big sweeping visions off of it. I also do not use it for work things, or even family goals. It’s simply just little things that I believe would add joy to my life or that I am curious to try. If I don’t get to all of them—oh well, no biggie.
Another one of my favorites is the “Four Year Plan” or the “Five year plan” or whatever number of years you are inspired to look out at. I started this practice when my youngest, my daughter was born. At that time I called it my Four Year Plan knowing that I was going to be home with my kids for a significant part of my days for the next roughly four years. I wanted to make sure that I was also, in whatever itty bitty increments I had then, moving forward on a bigger picture of my life. So four years out—when my kids were more or less both going to be in school— I wasn’t sitting around building my business up again from scratch. By that time, I intended, my work would have ramped up to support me in the way I want it to. And it would be a front burner activity already in place, especially while the kids are at school. To me, it gave me the confidence also to know, that however much of my life was spent wiping bums and fixing snacks at that time, during the in between of those moments I was veering in a direction that I intended. And that it was a direction I had chosen with forethought and excitement.
So when I have a several year plan in place, this is the time of year I especially allow myself to take stock of that plan. Evaluate where I am in it—and see if there are tasks that I need to step up this year. Again, review what has been and set in place what will be. But more than that, I also take time to envision. I allow my mind free range to imagine the possibilities I want to create and to examine how they will look and feel. I start celebrating my accomplishments early—in my head—enjoying how I will feel when they finally come to pass. It’s a lovely experience— all of it.
Another one that I love and seems popular in recent years is coming up with a word of the year ahead. It’s a word that comes to you, about your life, or what you’d like to see or experience in your life for next year. Jeez, I’m totally blanking right now on words that I’ve used in years past! But this year my word is “embodiment.” It’s meaningful and special to me—as your word should be to you. This is a word just for you. You can choose to tell others or not. You can keep it secret or tell the world. Up to you. This year, what also arose when I thought about my word for next year was an action word: Simplify. When my word for next year made itself known, not long after the word “simplify” came to me and I realized that it was in direct response to my other word “embodiment.” It was sort of like the “How To” word to get where I see myself going.
This is Aimée Cartier and you are listening to the Own Your Intuition Show. And if you’ve just joined us on Voice of Vashon radio, today we are talking ideas for making the most of an ending (of a calendar year) and a new beginning of one.
Then there is the practice of looking is the practice of looking back. Before moving forward it’s sometimes helpful to look behind you, to look and understand what has just been. I think it helps the slate actually get clean for forward movement too.
You can do this like I often do: Get a candle, a notebook, pen of choice (you can tell pens are important to me—since I actually say, “Pen of choice!”), a quiet space. If possible or inspired add a crackling fire and a warm beverage. Or you can ask these questions of your family members around the dinner table or with a small group of friends. Or ALL of those scenerios.
Questions that I like to explore this time of year, when one calendar year is turning to the next, are:
What did I love about this year that is completing?
What totally sucked about this year?
What wisdom did I learn or gain from the experiences I had this year?
What was this last year truly about for me?
In what ways have I changed?
In what ways has this year forged a new or clarified a path for me?
All that brings me to the last practice I’ll mention today—by way of peppering you with possible inspirations for a soulful inquiry for your own self.
I call it prayerful visioning. You heard me mention in episode 16 my “sacred start” or “sacred pause” practice. This is sort of similar. It’s not an activity with a specific goal and outcome in mind. It’s also not a list. I keep it loose. Instead of coming up with my business list of, “I will do this. That. And this. Next year.” I’ve been instead sitting with more of a blank slate— exploring the places or experiences that my inner vision tells me I am going toward —AND asking more open-ended questions.
Questions like, “Divine Benevolent Source—how would you have me serve the Highest Good in the year ahead?” Or, “What is the coming year about for me?” “Divine Benevolence or Highest Self (insert your current power words in there) what knowing/what focus would you have me bring into the year ahead?” “Sacred Source is there anything that you would like me to know as we close out one year and move to the next?”
I listen. I journal. Sometimes the impressions come to me THE moment I ask. Sometimes they filter in over time, when I’m driving down the road, for example, or when I’m cooking dinner for the family. The practice is to make time and space for visioning—for letting your mind wander and float freely and to ask questions that are inspiring to you about the time to come. You can of course use my list—or create your own.
Know that even if you are listening to this episode on Voice of Vashon—the episode is archived in case you’d like to have your journal handy to write down some of the ideas, questions, or internal observations that have come about as a result of listening to this episode. Also know that the Own Your Intuition show is available wherever you get your podcasts so you can listen again there too.
So, as we close out one calendar year and move to the next I wish you great internal satisfaction—whether for you that means sitting with a journal and a cup of tea—going deep and writing out these answers. Or it means doing nothing at all. Time ebbs, flows, ideas, inspirations, callings change—I wish you peace with wherever you are right now and a feeling of goodness for what lies ahead.
Big love to you all! Thank you for being here with me this year.
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This is Aimée Cartier and you have been listening to the Own Your Intuition show.
Thank you for joining me for the Own Your Intuition Show. If you like what you heard, might you do me an itty bitty favor? It only takes a few seconds: 5 Star the Own Your Intuition podcast, wherever you listen to yours. If you’re really feeling generous and want to spread the love to those YOU love—or maybe you want to have a journaling partner for today’s questions or organize your own little women’s gathering to explore today’s questions, send a link with this episode to your friends or sisters or mothers or neighbors.
If you feel inspired right now to harness more of your own intuition, I’ve got a free audio for you entitled, “What is intuition? How to tell the difference between the voice of your intuition and your "fear-based" ideas.” You can find the link to download it in the show notes.
If you’re empathic, I’ve been guiding empaths FOR YEARS. I’ve got some freebies (and an Empath Core Tools On Demand program) for you as well. I’ll put the links in the show notes!
See ya soon!