Now already in the second month of 2018, the New Year is well under way. While I’m not a “resolutions person” in the traditional sense, I do love/benefit from/enjoy/take advantage of/savor the official nature that the new year represents as a time of thoughtful creation for the upcoming year.

Rather than looking on what needs fixing, I like to focus on how I would like to feel in the year ahead and set intentions for each area of life in terms of how I would like to feel in that specific area, such as my health and vitality, for example, and identify the actions I believe will help me feel that way.

During this intention-setting phase, I recently benefitted from attending a meeting of the newly named and restructured Arizona Wellness Alliance—formerly the Arizona Integrative Wellness Coalition (AIWC). The speaker Emily Eldredge offered a talk, New Year Mastermind: Clarity & Courage for 2018, in which she shared a piece of her work, The Drawing Out Process, a very simple technique for honoring each of three positive parts she calls “Your Inner Em-Powers” within us each day by asking each part—the “Free-Spirit” (the joyful, creative spontaneous, innocent, playful, free part), the “Impresario” (the logical, practical, strategic, organized, productive, conscientious part) and the “Sovereign” (the intuitive, powerful, independent, courageous, spiritual, wise part)—“What small thing could I do today that would make you happy?” By paying attention to a small need each day of each part, folks experience tremendous shifts. Job burnout shifts, life feels lighter and more enjoyable.

While I am mainly focused on getting things done during my work day, I can honor the free spirit by allowing a quick stop at the art supply store, or perhaps just five minutes to research how to improve my drawing/artistic skills on YouTube. The Sovereign part is energized by short films on Gaia.com. I can also allow the already dominant Impresario to focus on just one significant task that will move my business forward in that given day and feel satisfied rather than having to complete all 20 items on my to-do list.

I am so enjoying this intentional creation phase of the year feeling fresh and enlivened. We hope to enliven you as you dive into the second month and enjoy local article contributions. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to take on qigong as a practice this year (page 18), inform yourself about tax law changes (page 21), save more money this year (page 22) or really take on a meditation practice this time (page 32).

February is a month usually bringing to mind thoughts of hearts and love, but let’s focus that love on ourselves, most of all.

With love and a joyful heart,

Holly