It is still early January as I write this. The time of year of resolutions. The time of year when the wonderful eclectic encyclopedia ‘The Marginalian’ shares the resolutions great artists and thinkers made before us. One of my personal favourites is the list written by musician Woody Guthrie in 1942, which contains ‘dream good’, ‘stay glad’, ‘love everybody’ and ‘keep hoping machine running’.
If you want to stick to your resolutions, keeping the hoping machine running is key. Even if your resolution is quite vague and you do not know exactly where you are going, you will need fuel to keep moving. Hope, that thing with feathers, is what will propel you forward. Your belief in possibility, no matter how small and modest, is what will spur you on.
At the start of a new year, this sense of hope and possibility is often very present. You can find yourself filled with excitement, as Elizabeth Gilbert describes in an interview: ‘an entire new year, oh my goodness, did you not see what I did with the last one?’
So how can we hold on to this feeling as we move further away from that moment we made our plans and resolutions? How do we keep the hoping machine running on a grey, wet day towards the end of January? Simply by often remembering that initial feeling of possibility and hope.
You might have an object or a picture that reminds you of when you set your intention. Perhaps the pebbles or shells you found on the beach, that beautiful golden leaf you found in the woods on new years day? Perhaps you have a picture representing your destination or the feeling you are aiming for, which you can put on your desk?
Personally, I like to remind myself with words. You’ll find quotes scribbled on pieces of paper all around my house. I keep a vast collection of quotes on my computer and my phone and I am seriously considering to have the verse ‘At the still point there the dance is‘ permanently written on my arm.
When I was going through a particularly difficult time in my romantic life, one of my dearest friends told me: ‘You are not crazy. I suggest you put that on a post-it.’ And I did.
These days, when I am looking for words to support me in keeping the hoping machine running, I will first focus on the feeling I wish to achieve. Then I will try and find words to describe the feeling and craft a short sentence without using ‘no’ or ‘not’.
I am good enough. I trust that I am safe. I relax into this love.
Instead of putting those words on a post-it, I will say them a few times a day, like a mantra or a prayer. The wise women who taught me this ritual combine it with creating an essential oil blend, which you keep in a small roller bottle. You just carry the bottle with you or keep it somewhere where you will see it a few times a day. Ideally you use the roller as you would use a lip balm: you add a fresh layer every few hours. Except you put the blend on your wrists or your heart. And as you do, you repeat your words.
I am good enough. I trust that I am safe. I relax into this love.
At this moment I am supporting my House II intentions with a phrase and a blend as well. In a new post I will go into more detail about finding those words and selecting the oils.
My rising sign 