Five Monthly Rituals to Anchor You in Your Intention

At the beginning of every calendar year, there can a burst of enthusiasm, clarity, and bold declarations of all that will be accomplished.

You feel the possibility and embrace the fresh new beginnings!

Maybe there's a Vision Board, a word of the year.

It's pretty sweet.

And as the weeks and months go by, too often the enthusiasm wanes, the goals get postponed or dropped.

These new goals and intentions get to be anchored.

For years now I've been intentional about keeping my monthly rituals, and they have become an anchor, holding me in the energy I want to live in.

Twelve times a year I sit down and check-in on how it's going. I look back at my goals. I reflect, reimagine, acknowledge myself, and adjust where needed. I've come to see them as a unit that sets me up for the month in a beautiful way that I can clearly look back on.

There's also something about a 30-day cycle that seems manageable.

It lights a fire in you and is also not too long that you would forget about it.

Below are my monthly rituals, in no particular order:

1. Look back on the lessons of the previous month:

This one is my favorite. I love looking back at what I went through, what I learned that I want to make sure to seal within me moving forward. Writing it down and acknowledging it is so powerful if you ever need to look back at them. What became clear this month? What did you learn about yourself that you want to remember? What is a boundary you want to hold? What did you learn about your business or customers?

This past month I learned how my binary thinking can keep me stuck, and how I want to shift to the grey a lot more often. It was such a powerful realization that I decided to change my word of the year for these last few months to be "Both/ And" to hold the fullness of really good things across my life without always believing there has to be a tradeoff.

2. Set goals for your month:

Think about the goals you had for the year, and the quarter. Where do you stand with them? Do you need to readjust expectations? Is this going to be a month of launching your podcast, tightening up your analytics, or getting active and creative with your networking? Exactly what do you want it to look like at the end of your month?

Give yourself room to be clear and not too rigid with your outcomes. Remember the Universe is happy to surprise you with something greater than you could have imagined. Your goals could be business, health, relationship goals. Writing them down somewhere you can see them all month long really supports you. Root in how you want to feel and take it from there.

3. Track your cycle:

Last year a friend shared the book Wild Power with me and it changed my life. Every month I draw out my cycle, where it lands this month and I know when it's ideal for me to be more visible and out in the world, when my intuition is at its peak, and when I get to rest. I do my best to plan around it. Just the awareness alone creates huge shifts. This is also a beautiful reminder of the power in owning your time and your schedule and how much this is under your control. It will bring you into an optimal state and your work will be that much more creative and potent.

If this is brand new for you, this month try simply giving yourself space to listen to your body. I love asking the question "What does my body want?" and listening. The more you listen, the more the answers will come from your nourished, well-rested, ideal state and naturally lead you to your wellness and your flow.

4. Pay your bills (but make it magic):

I used to hate paying my bills. I would get nervous, anxious, and even feel cloudy as I felt the loss of the money going away. Many years of Shadow Work on my money beliefs have me largely on the other side of this, and I've also decided to revamp the full experience of paying my bills every month.

And it has been a game changer.

I light a candle, I play some music, and with every bill I pay I am filled with the gratitude for the value I received and the gratitude and abundance that I have the money to pay for it. It is a dance of gratitude with my money, and seals in the knowing that there is plenty more where that came from.

It sets the tone for the next month.

5. Refresh your altar:

If you have an altar, once a month you can reset it, clean the space, add fresh flowers, add elements that symbolize your intentions for this new month and remove others whose purposed has come to a close with reverence.

If you don't have an altar, you can do all those things in your home and the spaces where you spend the most time. It can be a vase of fresh flowers in the dining room, deep cleaning your kitchen, or lighting a special candle in your bedroom. It is the intention behind the action that makes it yours and magical.

Remember that the energy that surrounds you can elevate you or keep you feeling stuck. You can actively work with it to support the way you want to feel and what you want to create, everyday.

✍🏻 I'd love to hear from you!

Do you already practice any of these rituals?

Are there any you are curious about incorporating?

Any others you would add?