Let Your Family 🔅Enlighten You

December 3, 2023

Taking the time to slow down and do the opposite of what the culture requires is a gift! 🎁I invite you to take some time to reflect with me.

How would you like to close out 2023 and step into 2024?

The full moon last Monday, November 27th, marks the beginning of the end. Fall is officially closed, and the winter months are here.

It’s a time for slowing down, staying in, shedding, and reflecting.

At this time of year, I reflect on my life and relationships over the past 12 months to see what I have learned, how I have evolved and grown, and where I might want to expand even more. 

Then I begin to envision what I want to create for myself in the coming year. This is one way I take ownership as a co-creator and take responsibility for what it is I want to experience in my life and relationships.

As you bid farewell to 2023 and embrace the winter months, join me in taking a collective pause to ask: What invaluable lessons have my relationships taught me this past year? 

My 2023 unfolded as a year of significant initiations and expansion, with my most vital relationships serving as my most profound teachers. I have learned so much about myself and my capacity to love from these important relationships.

• I have learned valuable lessons about true vulnerability.
• I have built my patience muscle.
• I have become more understanding and much more compassionate. 
• I am much slower and more intentional.
• I have become stronger and more courageous and have cultivated clearer boundaries.
• I trust myself and the universe more than ever.

In a recent podcast interview, Charles Eisenstein said, “In order to develop the heart muscle, you need to face situations where it is hard to love, where it is hard to be generous, where your ability to be patient and kind is challenged, and that is how you grow the soul.”

In facing unexpected relationship challenges, my soul underwent a significant upgrade, leading to spiritual shifts, transformations, and the development of newfound awareness. My capacity for healing expanded, and my mind and heart opened in ways I had never imagined.

I know unequivocally, Like Charles Eisentstein says above, that I needed those challenges to grow and expand my capacity to experience unconditional love and offer it in return.

I believe your closest relationships are a catalyst for your growth as well.

As the year begins to wind down, I invite you to take a moment and reflect on some of the most impactful lessons you’ve learned from your most significant relationships.

Before you get too caught up in the rush of the holiday season, grant yourself the gift of time. Grab your journal and delve into the catalysts that spurred your growth, the lessons learned, and the patterns worth breaking.

Here are a few questions to help you get clear:

• What person or situation has been a relationship catalyst this past year?
• What did you learn as a result?
• What have your relationships taught you about you?  
• Where have you grown, stretched, or expanded?
• Where are you stuck and repeating patterns? 

Journal your responses to these questions, allowing the reflections to unfold. It is a crucial moment to decelerate, reflect on the evolution and growth of the past year, honor and celebrate it, and distill lessons learned before embracing the new year.

I’m right there with you.

With gratitude,

Annmarie Chereso
Author, Speaker, Coach, & Meditation Teacher