I am not sure if this was a fad that died out or if it is still going.  Choosing a word for the year to be your intention.  I am a person who really enjoys words.  I think some of my clients may get frustrated because I want to choose just the right word in a sentence….or when I catch a small word in the way they are speaking and suggest a way to say it differently.  Maybe it IS just semantics….OR maybe our brain is listening and the subtle change can cause a subtle shift.

I know that my practice of choosing a word for the year has been a powerful, sometimes fun, sometimes surprising practice.  I did write about this once before in this blog, but then I took a break from blogging and didn’t fill in the years between.  I would love to tell you about my 2017 word because it was rather powerful.  Bear with me….it is more than what you see at face value.

SEXY

You read that right!  I was reading Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton last year.  Such a good book, raw and inspiring!  In the book, she was talking to her daughter about what it means to be sexy.  This quote was so powerful, I have been focusing on it all year long.

Sexy is a grown-up word to describe a person who’s confident that she is already exactly who she was made to be.  A sexy woman knows herself and she likes the way she looks, thinks, and feels.  She doesn’t try to change to MATCH anybody else.  She’s a good friend to herself—kind and patient.  And she knows how to use her words to tell people she trusts about what’s going on inside of her—her fears and anger, love, dreams, mistakes, and needs.  When she’s angry, she expresses her anger in healthy ways.  When she’s joyful, she does the same thing.  She doesn’t hide her true self because she’s not ashamed.  She knows she’s just human—exactly how God made her and that’s good enough.  She’s brave enough to be honest and kind enough to accept others when they’re honest.  When two people are sexy enough to be brave and kind with each other, that’s love.  Real sexy is letting your true self come out of hiding and find love in safe places.

I allow these words to “find me” each year.  They usually show up around November of the previous year.  My 2018 word showed up in October of this year, when I was at Sandtray training.  I did a lot of my own trays while at the training and there were a few pieces that showed up in many of my trays.  Here was a set of 3 that would show up together:

 

I would choose these pieces as a symbol for “I choose love and miracles.”  The lotus flower is a miracle because it blooms in the mud.  Love is fairly obvious.  The hands were my symbol for “I choose.”  But there was one moment when I said, “These hands actually look like they are receiving instead of choosing.”  Pause.  “Maybe I should receive more and quit trying to be active in the things going on in my life.”  Wait a minute.  That washed over me.  I just really felt that to my core.  I so often want to be actively CHOOSING things and in control.  Can you relate?  Deep breath moment….I need to receive love and miracles.  So in 2018, my word for the year is….

RECEIVE