A practical and pagan way to begin a new year and a new you.
Radical regeneration requires rewriting ones story. Most of our stories that we live by and adhere to are unconscious, they are influenced by our cultural conditioning, our familial conditioning and, in a way, alive in our body-mind, our psyche whether we are aware of it or not. And this plays out in our lives by drawing us to situations and circumstances that replay these stories because they are familiar.
More often than not these situations and circumstances are not ones we consciously wish for, in fact most of the time we find ourselves in recurring situations that we curse ourselves for being in. That might be unhealthy relationships with lovers, unhealthy power dynamics with authority figures, or unhealthy behaviours around money and material possessions.
In these situations and circumstances it is likely that we feel a loss of power, a loss of control and a loss of agency. All of this is not to say that we are sadistic and put ourselves in unwanted positions. There are external forces that are out of our control and yet, we have more control than we possibly realise, just not in the way that we conscious believe we do.
Our control and agency lies in our ability to make the unconscious conscious. In a way these situations we draw ourselves into unconsciously are a occurring because our body-mind, our psyche, is seeking to rewrite the story; to create a different ending to the story than the one we have become habituated to; the one we have become conditioned to; the one we have come to feel and know as normal.
For example, if you find yourself habitually attracted to unhealthy lovers, it’s worth investigating – is this because you are familiar with that scenario and you are seeking to transform it? The answer is likely, yes! But how do you do that? In rewriting our stories we become more aware of our patterns, and more awareness allows us more agency when we find ourselves in these situations.
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The new year can be an arbitrary change of month or we can use this momentum to rewrite our story, to become aware of our habits and to create different patterns of thought and behaviours. Why? To radically regenerate and be a co-creator of paradise on earth. To fully acknowledge the heartache, suffering and atrocities, and use this as fuel to fire your creative energy.
When was the last time you feel an overwhelming sense of freedom and hope for the future? Or do you not allow yourself the natural right to regenerate as nature already does? Everything occurs in cycles and if you've been stuck in the doldrums for too long, then now is the time to flow with the upward energy of the new year and leap into the exciting possibilities of the unknown. If you perpetually self-flagellate and resist the tide of new year vibes, then read on.
Take a moment to contemplate now – what situations or circumstances in your life seem to repeat? Write them down in your journal, it may just be one, or a couple, or many, it doesn’t matter, write them all down. Perhaps you have a difficult relationship with your boss, perhaps you tend to spend your money as soon as you’ve earnt it, perhaps you feel stuck in a cycle of unhealthy eating patterns or a lack of motivation to move your body more, or a lack of confidence to start something new that you would love to do.
Now choose one of them to work with, once you’ve chosen your recurring painful, unhealthy or disempowering pattern, then begin to contemplate what might be a healthier, happier, more empowering scenario. This is rewriting the end to this story. In a way you are giving your body-mind a sense of completion to this cycle so that it doesn’t need to repeat ad nauseum in your life.
Don’t be fooled by thinking that you cannot change. You might be thinking - I’m too old and set in my ways, this relationship is too far gone, I’m too overweight, I’m too busy, this is just how I am. These are just ways that part of us wishes to abdicate responsibility for our lives. And that is not to say that there aren’t external forces that influence our lives that are out of our control, we all have our bounds and limitations, but it is to say that you have more agency than you realise, you perhaps just haven’t exercised it in a way that is transformative and long lasting.
Here is a helpful tip to making this a transformation that is long lasting – Don’t do it with force or out of judgment, but do it by activating your will with joy, pleasure and excitement for the possibilities that you have yet to realise. Yes, this is healing work, but who said healing work can’t be fun. Therefore when you come to rewrite your story, choose an ending that not only feels empowering in its completion but also sparks a sense of lightness, freedom and fun, for the person you wish to be and for the life you wish to live.
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WRITE YOUR EPITAPH
In order to transform and regenerate, it is the law of nature that we must allow something to die. In our culture we are often too afraid of death to even utter the word but ignoring this fact thwarts our ability to transform and reap the rewards of letting go. So, get yourself a piece of paper, one that you can bury in the ground, throw into the wind, immerse in water and burn in a fire at the end of this exercise. Start your epitaph:
Here in lies [your name].
She was [everything that you are allowing to die]. For example: She was meek, a bit of a pushover, spent too much of her money on perfume and too much of her time reading occult books. She drank too much wine, slept in too often and never followed her dream of riding a horse bareback along a wild beach.
Here today I grieve her and allow her to be decomposed in the regenerative soil of the earth.
Upon her grave I am planting the seed of a beautiful Kahikatea [insert your favourite tree], so that she may transform and grow in the form of branches and leaves, to embody everything she was not [list all the qualities that you wish to cultivate in your life as of today].
Now rip up this piece of paper into four parts:
bury one part in the earth
throw one part into the wind
immerse one part in a body of water
burn one part in a fire.
By the transformative power of the elements, may you decompose and regenerate anew.
Listen to our latest RADICAL REGENERATION meditation to support you in this practise.
Check out our newsletter ARCHIVE for more inspiration.
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