Ready to welcome the new year? Last week I shared 5 Ways to Say Goodbye to 2022—in Writing! It can be a powerful exercise to review the year and write or journal about highlights. We can grieve our losses and make space for new experience. And we can treasure what we loved about the year, while re-experiencing the joy of these memories. And we can celebrate all that was good about the year, attracting more good things for the new year in 2023.

We can also go a step further to welcome in the new year. At the end of each calendar year, I engage in some kind of ritual that involves envisioning what I want to create for the new year. And the results speak for themselves—from healing an illness to writing more poetry to publishing a book to a deeper relationship with my husband—and more.

In the coming year, one of my goals is to experience life more from my heart than my head (inspired by a book (of course)–The Secret Teachings of Plants). Another is to complete and publish my next book. And another is to eat a cleaner diet (did anyone say sugar?).

Writing about your vision to welcome in the new year can make it easier to actualize your aspirations because you get in touch with the details of the goal that begin to make it feel real, alive in the present, tangible. In addition, journaling or other writing can stimulate your emotions—passion, joy, connection, love—which help you sustain the energy and actions to attract your desires.

7 Writing Exercises to Welcome in the New Year 2023!

Choose one writing / journaling exercise or try them all! You may just discover the most empowering and exciting year of your life!

1. What feelings do you want to feel most in 2023? Make a list of all of them. Then pick one or two to write about. What might help you feel that way?
2. What creative accomplishment(s) would make 2023 especially meaningful, fulfilling and joyous? List them and then write about what you imagine it will be like and feel like when these creative dreams come to fruition. Imagine a day in your life and write about it in detail, whether in story, essay or poetry form.
3. How do you want to contribute to others in 2023? List those people and causes you care about. Choose one or two to explore how you can make a difference in a way that feels joyful and expansive.
4. What do you want to experience in 2023? Is there anything you haven’t experienced that you’d love to try? A hot air balloon ride, a trip to Cambodia in a volunteer capacity (I know someone who can help make that one happen), a live qigong training program with a master you’ve studied with online (yes, that one’s on my list and you can join me and Qigong Master Robert Peng at Kripalu in the Berkshires if it intrigues you!)? Write about why you want this experience and what it means to you. Explore how you can make it happen and when. Maybe even write it into your calendar. Or, like me, register now and set your dream experience in motion.
5. Whom do you want to get to know in 2023? Is there a writer or “paper mentor” whose work has impacted your life? Would you like to to meet them? What might that be like? What would you ask them? What do you imagine might happen? Explore. Play. See what comes up as you write. Maybe you can sign up for a workshop with them, as I did with Robert Peng!
6. How do you want to grow in 2023? You may have heard me mention my penchant for dreamwork and, as I mentioned above, my desire to open my heart and experience consciousness through the perceptions of my heart more often than my head. Reading, journaling and exploring these two areas has brought such deeper joy, creativity and connection into my life recently. So, they are top of my list to cultivate and nurture in 2023. Ask yourself where you want to focus your growth—health, work, creative pursuits, relationships, finances, or specific areas of personal growth and healing? Write about what you envision and how you might stimulate, nurture and foster these pursuits.
7. What do you want to be open to in 2023? Are there ways you experience rigidity or protect yourself from life? Where would you like to take a risk and open yourself to new ways of thinking, believing, behaving and creating? Explore the possibilities in your journal!

Let’s Welcome 2023!

Join me in welcoming the new year. Write one or more of your insights, visions, dreams or goals for the new year as a comment below. Feel free to share your writing in detail!