For a long time now, I’ve gotten into the practice of picking a word of the year. This is a practice that I do before I set my goals and actions and helps me to decide whether or not a goal or action feels truly good to me.
This acts as a guiding force for all the big (and little decisions) that I make within a year.
For example, in 2023 it was ‘Soar with awe’ and throughout the year I constantly asked myself : ‘Will this decision help me to soar with awe?’
So as you can tell, picking your word is a big decision to make! But how do you decide which one to choose?
Well today, I’m going to show you the exact process that I go through to pick my word of the year.
Create a sacred space
You will want to create a sacred space where you can access and connect with your soul and intuition (which will help guide you to selecting your word).
Ways that you might like to create a sacred space could include:
- Creating an altar with items that are important and sacred to you
- Cleansing your sacred space with palo santo
- Building a meditation or journaling nook in your home
These are just suggestions and the most important thing is that the space feels sacred and soulful to you!
It’s also nice to create a sacred space somewhere private – so that you can retreat and connect with yourself, with little interruptions!
Once you have your sacred space, you’ll want to retreat to it regularly to help connect to yourself and access your intuition. It is from this place where we can make the most soulful and aligned decisions!
Communicate with the divine
Your sacred space is a dedicated space to connect with yourself and with the divine.
Some ways that you might like to do this include:
- Meditation, deep breathing and relaxation
- Visualising yourself in conversation with the divine
- Journaling to connect with your highest self
- Drawing oracle cards to ask for divine guidance
- Taking note of any synchronicities or recurring messages
You’ll also want to keep track of any insights or words that come up for you while you complete these activities – we’ll be looking back over these soon!
Be open to inspiration
So you’ve created a sacred space and communicated with the divine, now you’ll want to open up to inspiration.
For example, you might be reading a book when something just jumps out of the page at you.
Or maybe you’re in conversation with a friend and you find yourself repeating the same word over and over again.
These are signs and inspiration that can help guide your choice.
Once again, keep track of these words.
Or if you have a few words but they’re not quite right, a thesaurus is a great way to find new and exciting words that feel more aligned and magic!
Feel into the words
After you’ve created your sacred space, communicated with the divine, and stayed open to inspiration, you should have a list of potential words!
Now is the time to go back over those words, feel into each of them, and decide which one feels most aligned and perfect for the year ahead.
A great way to do this is to read each of your words out loud and tap into the feelings in your body. Do you feel expansive and powerful when you read a word? Or does your body constrict when you read it out loud?
Continue this process until you have selected one.
Anchor into your word of the year
Once you’ve chosen your word of the year, you’ll want to make sure you feel anchored into it.
I love creating a mindmap of my word as a visual reminder of what that word truly means to me. In the mindmap, you might like to include other words, actions, goals or feelings connected to your intentions.
As well as creating a mindmap, you might also like to create a Pinterest board. For example, using ‘Illustrious’ as my word for 2024, I would create a Pinterest board and pin images that made me feel this way.
Some other ways you might anchor into your word:
- Write the word on a post-it note and stick it up in your office
- Create a beautiful graphic of your word and use it as the background on your phone or computer
- Create a Spotify playlist for your word of the year
- Create an intentional piece of art that sums up your word of the year
- Create an essential oil blend to anchor into your word of the year
I hope this has inspired you to pick your word of the year – and I hope it helps bring you all that you desire!
Do you want to dive deeper into your word for 2024?
Your Soulful Year was designed to guide you through the entire process – with a guided meditation, instructional videos, and a beautiful PDF workbook. Click here to learn more and get started today!