Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on why we need to be our true, authentic selves. How we can align with the Universe’s greater plan. And set intentions to flow through our next year.

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The end of the year. I’m sure a lot of us are thinking, “Oh no the year’s over! What did I even achieve? What even happened? Things went by so fast. Oh my god.”

Stop being hard on yourself!

Look, you did a lot more this year than you imagine. And you’ve made a lot more difference in your life and the lives of others than you think right now. There’s an inner critic that always questions us, that always puts pressure on us. Ignore it.

We just had the winter solstice two days ago. This is a time for you to go inwards. Just step away from everything.

Another thing that happens at the end of the year is we start making plans for the next year. All these big ambitions, grand plans, putting great pressure on ourselves. It’s like, “Okay, this year’s gone off, but at least I won’t waste next year.” But as long as you’re living a fulfilled life, being true to your life, yourself, just being in flow, making a difference in the people you touch, even in the smallest of ways, it doesn’t mean you’re wasted your life.

So don’t put pressure on yourself. This is not the time to do that. Actually, no time is the time to do it, but especially not now. Because now is the time to just withdraw. Go in wards. Make some notes of all the things that you’ve actually done.

More importantly, the question to ask yourself is, “how true to yourself have you been?”

How authentic to yourself? That doesn’t mean what others tell you you are, or what the critic part of your brain tells you you are. No. You need some time in silence to realise who you truly are at your core, at your highest self.

So figure out how much of that you’ve been throughout this year. And then, what habits did you have? What practices, thought patterns, relationships, what is it that you had that kept you back from being your truest self?

On 27th December, we have the last full moon of the year.

Full moon is a good time to release, cleanse yourself

So on the day of the full moon, spend some time meditating. And then, let go of all the patterns, all the thoughts, the feelings, the relationships, the time wasting work, all the things that are holding you back from being your true, authentic self. All of it, just release it to the moon. Surrender it and let it go.

I have a couple of full moon meditations on my Insight Timer profile also. So if you’d like help to do this, you can just follow those meditations.

For this coming year, setting intentions is fine but not the kinds where you put pressure on yourself. And definitely don’t make all kinds of grand goals and plans. Set intentions to be your true, authentic self, and to be in alignment, in tune with your higher self, and the universe’s flow.

There’s a greater plan

Whether it’s in your work, creativity, business, life, there’s a bigger plan. But we always try to control things and make things our own, do things our own way, and often, that’s against the grander plan.

You know it’s against the grander plan when it’s a struggle, when it doesn’t really feel right, when it feels like friction, friction, friction. And you’re still like, “No! This has to happen. I have to do this. I have to be this.” That’s definitely against the grander plan.

If you feel in flow…whenever you talk, whenever you do something, whenever you create or live your life, however you do it, when you feel a sense of ease and flow, like you’re being supported, and this feels right, and then at the end of it you feel deeply fulfilled, that’s when you’re going in alignment with the grander plan.

So for your intentions for the New Year, say, “How exactly can I be true to myself? True to myself at the core?”

A couple of things to do for that. One is, most importantly, spending time in silence, going inwards and figuring out who you are at your core, your true, highest self. What kind of person are you?

You don’t have to figure out your purpose by the way. The purpose will fall into place. You don’t have to figure out what to do, what direction to take. You just tap into your true self. What kind of person are you?

And then the second thing you do is, make your decisions, your plans, set your intentions, in alignment with that person. How much of what you plan to do is going to be true to yourself? Once you make your decisions in alignment with that, you’ll automatically take the right actions, taking you towards a more purposeful, fulfilling life.

And three, once you’re so confident, you know yourself, you’ve set your goals, you made your plans, then it doesn’t matter what others say. People, particularly society in general, will try to pull you towards certain norms, certain ways of being, certain conditioning. If you’re confident in who you are, and how you want to flow through your life, being your true self, then it’s very easy to get over any hurdles society throws at you.

If you feel like, “Okay, this is who I am, this is what I want to do, this is how I want to be,” and as long as obviously it’s not hurting anybody else and taking away somebody else’s free will, right? We’re making that part obvious.

As long as it’s you being who you are in your life, what others say won’t even matter to you over time

And the more confident you are in your true self, the more you present yourself as, “this is just who I am, this is how I want to flow through life”, then the others will see your confidence and people will stop getting in your way. Even if the way you live is totally against the norm.

Somebody had messaged me a while ago on my Insta saying, “I don’t want to have kids, but I have no idea how to talk to my parents, my in-laws, my family about this, and tell them this decision.”

She was very sure she didn’t want to have kids, and I’m thinking her partner and her had both decided that they want to be this way. But they were afraid of what the rest of society would say.

So I gave her a very simple solution

I said, “don’t even make a big deal of it. You just be this way. Don’t say, ‘let’s sit down, have a talk, I don’t want to have kids’, don’t even do all that. Instead, you just live the way you’re living, and you make it feel so natural that really nobody’s going to have to say anything. They cannot say much even if they feel judge-y. They’re not going to be able to say much because it’s natural. Like, ‘yeah this is the way it is. This is the way I am. So what?’ Don’t even let them think it’s a big deal.”

It’s a great way to handle things whenever you make major changes in your life, take certain decisions which are out of the norm. Do this and see.

I’ve seen this with me being vegan also

Initially, I would make a big deal of it, tell people, get deep into all of it. And then, that would invite arguments. It would invite justification from others for them not being vegan, and why I should not also be.

The moment I started being fully confident, like, “yeah this is just who I am. No milk for me. No ghee for me. Give me this instead.” When I made it casual. The more casual and easy I made it seem, the more people were willing to support me on my journey. It’s hilarious the way this works!

So yeah, for the coming year ask yourself who your true self is, who you are in your core. How you can live in alignment with that. Make your decisions, make your plans based on the person you are and do things that are not going to take you away from that. And then be very very confident. So confident in who you are and so in ease and flow that nothing’s going to come in your way, nobody’s going to stop you.

And yes, for goodness sake, don’t put pressure on yourself, don’t get too ambitious!

It’s okay, you focus on being in flow and feeling fulfilled. Everything else will fall into place.

Find the full moon (and several other) meditations here. I’d love to hear what you think of them. Leave me a comment there on the meditations about your experience with them. All right, talk to you again next week. Take care.

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I’m a Spiritual Vegan Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur. I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and believe kindness and authenticity can make this world a happier, loving place.

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Vegan cuisine and holistic business building are my two biggest passions. If you’re looking for guidance with vegan cooking, or want to grow your conscious business with joy and fulfilment explore ways we can work togetherhere.”

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