Dear friends,
Happy New Year! How are you feeling about the year ahead? Excited? Apprehensive? Hopeful? I’m claiming this year as my “Dandelion Wishes Year.”
My Dandelion Wishes Year will be a year of joy, hope, and wishes fulfilled. Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I stopped making resolutions long ago. Instead, I like to begin the year by visualizing the year ahead. I journal about what I want to create, list “I am” and “I have” affirmations, meditate, and spend time walking in nature.
Imagine the year ahead like a dandelion clock. Blow on the fluffy seeds to scatter them in all directions, knowing each seed is a wish that will come true.
This year is starting out in an exciting way for me. I’m about to begin my graduate school program in library science. The idea to become a librarian came to me towards the end of last year. Somehow, it all came together in the nick of time to be admitted into the program for Spring 2024. Once I made the decision, everything just flowed. It didn’t even occur to me that I might not get accepted into the program until a friend asked if I had a backup plan. They seemed surprised when I said, “No,” in a way that indicated I wouldn’t need one. I knew I wouldn’t need a backup plan because I have been admitted into every academic program I have ever applied for.
The reason I mention this is because it is the main point of this newsletter. Our thoughts and expectations create our reality. I was fourteen when I first applied for a competitive academic program (my high school). Since I was admitted, it became my expectation that I only had to apply in order to be accepted.
Now, I’m not saying that I just breeze through life, receiving everything I want, because I’ve had a lot of struggles actually. What I am saying is those struggles are because of deeply rooted negative thoughts and core beliefs. Yet, I have a core belief that I am a scholarly person who can create an excellent application of admission into whatever program I’m interested in applying to, and I don’t question whether I will be admitted or not. I just accept that by taking action and applying I will be offered a place. Working to apply this confidence to other areas of my life has proved to be challenging though. And so, one of my goals (which I see as being different from a resolution) for this year is to boost my confidence and feelings of self-worth in the areas that I currently struggle with.
Before I continue with this train of thought, I just want to mention a few things that are happening this year.
Besides focusing on graduate school, I also have a lot of projects in the works. I contributed to a poetry anthology that will publish next month (more on that soon), have poems lined up for Kind Over Matter through the rest of the year, and am participating in a few collaborative projects with kindred spirits.
And in case you missed it, I wrote an article for Zoe Eccles’ blog Life Gazing about discovering Cinderella is a major part of my personal mythology. You can read Reclaiming Cinderella as a Story of Empowerment here.
This year, the plan is to post my Musings of a Selkie Witch Newsletter three Sundays a month and have a Muse Monday Feature one Monday a month. So far, I have Muse Monday features lined up through June. If you would like to be featured during the second half of 2024, please send me an email at caitgemmell@gmail.com with “Muse Monday Feature” as the subject of your email and we can get your post scheduled.
Okay, and now back to the main point of this newsletter.
Tips for Creating Your Perfect 2024
We must begin by changing our core beliefs that hinder our progress. No amount of positive affirmations will help us to achieve our desires if we have core beliefs that are contrary to these desires. Identifying our core beliefs is the first step.
Now we can work on changing the core beliefs that don’t benefit us. This is where awareness of our thoughts is so helpful. Any time we find ourselves thinking a negative thought, we can switch focus and replace those thoughts with positive ones.
Begin repeating daily positive affirmations. The words we use aren’t as important as how we feel, so choose ones that automatically make us feel uplifted. Listening to positive, empowering people can be beneficial too. I love watching LaNia Roberts videos on Instagram anytime I need a boost of positivity. I highly recommend her content. She’s a joyful, uplifting person who just radiates the kind of energy I hope to embody.
When we consistently feel good, this is when it is helpful to visualize and/or combine visualization with positive affirmations. Write affirmations on post-it notes and scatter them around.
Create a vision board of what we want to manifest this year. Pinterest is a great resource for this, as is cutting images and words out of magazines and making a collage.
Meditate and practice mindfulness.
Walk in nature in a mindful way.
Practice gratitude. Each day think of things to be grateful for.
Show kindness. Be kind as we interact with the world around us.
Listen to subliminals on YouTube. I’ve started listening to a few of these to help boost my confidence and keep a positive mindset, and it’s helping!
I hope you find these tips useful. May 2024 be a beautiful year for all of us.
With love,
Caitlin
P.S. I almost forgot! I’m now offering letters from a selkie witch digitally for all of my paid subscribers. In the past, it’s been confusing for paid subscribers to sign up to receive these letters in the mail. If you are a paid subscriber and are not currently receiving these letters in the mail, you can still access a digital version of them right here. You can also leave a comment letting me know you want the letters, and I will email you privately to obtain your mailing address. And if you aren’t currently a paid subscriber but want to start receiving these letters you can upgrade to a paid subscription for $5 a month.
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