Usher in the New Year with a Unique Icelandic Tradition

'Burn' out the old...creating space for the new!

Ulala, the new year is just around the corner. A new year, with new fresh energy, with new possibilities. This is the time to set your goals and visions for the future. Plan your year ahead, be inspired, and be excited about our ideas.??

Heck yeah, be passionate! We’ve been told!

Every year, the same thing happens!

It’s not as if you have not heard this before. And you might do the same thing again and again. Tell yourself that you will lose weight this year, exercise more, learn new things, etc.

You might read articles and books, listen to podcasts, and follow the ‘right’ guru on social media, thinking, this time around; I’m going to do this!

Then… about three to four weeks into the new year. BINGO… you are back to square one.

Oh gosh, I’ve been there! Going back to square one sucks. That’s the time when your self-talk turns from being all enthusiastic to self-destroying talk; I'm impossible. Why can’t I do what I set my mind to do? What is the matter with me? You might even ask yourself.

The tricky thing with these questions is that your subconscious mind is designed to answer your questions.

That means when you ask yourself: What’s the matter with me? Your mind will give you an answer!

Almost immediately. Your subconscious mind will say something like; Oh, you asked what’s the matter with you, well I will tell you… and down goes the spiral.

You feel just worse, right?

Two Women and One Men- Three Pieces of Advice - Magic happens!

In the Super Soul Podcast intro, Oprah reminds us about giving ourselves time and taking the time to be fully present.?

Such truth in it.?

Each time I listen to her advice, something profound happens within me. Her advice reminds me of another person’s advice, my dear friend and mentor, Marcia Martin, the Godmother of Transformation.??

Marcia’s wisdom reminds us that there are only two things in this world; Space and things we put into our space. She then says that nothing will change if you don’t have space for it to exist in.??

When your mind is full of self-doubt crap, you have no space for anything new to exist—so take the time to look inwards. To take a look at our subconscious programs. The programs are always running, filling our minds with loads of crap from our past into our present and future.?

I call it to become aware of the box you’ve placed yourself into!

The box could be an; I’m not good enough box! Or I’m not 'perfect' box!??

You could be in that box because somebody said something to you at some time in your life. You interpreted that at the time as a threat, predicting that you did something wrong or not okay enough.?

It could be linked with your gender box! And how you have been socially conditioned to believe that you should behave in a certain way because you are a boy or a girl.

It could be linked with your family box; nobody in your family has a history of actually ‘making it’

So there are boxes within boxes within boxes within boxes.

I am so with you!??

My friend, co-author and business partner Nicholas (Nick) Haines, the co-founder of The No More Boxes Transformational Movement, talks about how we can stop the spiral downwards by changing our self-talk with his brilliant Conscious Questions.

You can download my personal favourite 10 Conscious Questions HERE!

Making it Your Purpose to Unleash Yourself from Your Social Conditioning to Become Yourself!

And even though I’ve discovered tons of my own boxes. I’ve loved creating new space in them; I have even escaped them, folded them into a neat little disposable thing, and recycled them.

I’m still learning.

My most significant learning point was when I discovered that all of these boxes are made up!

They only exist if you believe they exist.

It’s our life journey to discover our boxes, give ourselves time to open them up and clear some old beliefs to create space for something new that serves and nurtures us better into the future.

Using the Icelandic Tradition to Burn out the Old Year to Bring in Space for the New Year!

A 3-Actions Steps to Give Yourself Time to Create New Space in Your Life

Every year on New Year’s Eve, Icelandic families and communities come together by a big bonfire to celebrate the end of the year.? We stand, generally in the ice-cold, with drinks that keep us warm and sing Icelandic traditional songs as we watch the fire burn out the old year.? History tells us that its origin is to make peace with the hidden people, the elves and trolls, which many Icelanders believe in.?

I have used the bonfire to reflect on good and difficult memories from the past year and mentally burned the ones I don’t want to take with me into the new year into the bonfire.

Now, I’m not going to tell you to create a bonfire in your living room ;-) - on the contrary; these three points can be made to create a new space.

1 - Post-it notes!

Get yourself a Post-It-Notes and write down on each note a feeling, memory, or sentence that describes your 2022. Write everything down, the good, the bad and the ugly times.

2- Pick notes that inspire!

Take a good look at your notes and pick out the ones that inspire you, the sentences, events, and thoughts you would like to have more of in 2023 and put them on one side of your table. These notes will be part of your clear intentions for the new year. Read one at a time in presence tens. I am… pay particular notice to the feeling that each sentence gives you.

3- Mentally burn the other notes!??

Take the other pile of notes. You can now consciously decide not to take these thoughts, feelings, and sentences into the new year. You don’t have to burn them if you don’t have a safe environment to do so; instead, you can look at them for one last time, close your eyes and imagine you are in Iceland in front of that bonfire. You see all of these notes being burnt.?

Pay attention to the release of feelings inside your body as you do as Oprah inspires you to do, giving yourself time to be more present.

And by the way, if you translate the Icelandic word for being Perfect (fullkomin) directly to English - it means ‘Being fully present’ now; how perfect is that?

______________

Author: Rúna Magnúsdóttir, the out-of-the-box leadership coach, speaker and writer.? Personal Mission: Inspiring Others to Become Better, Bolder and Brighter as the Leading Light in Their Industry.?

www.RunaMagnus.com