Shedding and Soaring: What Love Taught Me in 2024

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Prefer to listen instead of read? Click the link below to hear an audio version of this post, where I reflect on the lessons of 2024 and the word guiding me into 2025. Whether you’re relaxing with a cup of tea or multitasking, I hope you enjoy this new way to connect! 💬✨

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As the final moments of 2024 drifted into the past, I found myself standing in a circle of incredible women at a New Year’s event hosted by one of my favorite yoga instructors. The atmosphere was sacred and serene, a perfect space for shedding the old and embracing the new. It was a morning of deep intention—honoring our bodies, celebrating our health and wellness, and letting go of the things that no longer served us.

Throughout the event, we paused to journal at different intervals. There was something magical about putting pen to paper in that moment, surrounded by kindred spirits. I wrote, "I’m looking forward to new things and different paths. I’ve been turned inward for so long, and now I’m ready to open up. I’m craving time with friends and the excitement of meeting new people. It’s time to soak up the goodness and energy of others."

”In her light” 2022

As I reflected on ‘love’ as my guiding word for the year, I realized it wasn’t just about the love I give to others. It’s about fierce self-love—the kind that embraces every messy, glorious part of who I am. My scars, my stories, my triumphs, and my flaws have shaped me. They’ve made me strong, but strength doesn’t have to mean rigidity.

Through meditation that morning, we went through a process of shedding, and I let it guide my thoughts. Shedding trauma, pain, anger, and the need to always be on guard. As I let go, I felt my whole being soften. I realized that I didn’t need to hold myself so tightly anymore. I could be softer, more open, more pliable.

This release left me feeling lighter, as though I could finally let others in without fear. It was a shedding that made room for expansion—into the person I am now, into the person I’ve always been. This shedding felt like the natural culmination of my year with love as my guide. It paved the way for what’s next: expansion.

During a yoga pose, balancing on one leg with my arms stretched wide, I imagined myself spreading my wings. I pictured myself soaring—not away from my past, but with it, integrating every part of my journey. In that moment, I felt profoundly here, present, and alive.

As I move into 2025, I will carry this fierce love with me. It will shine in how I treat myself, in how I connect with others, and in how I navigate my purpose. My new word for the year, expansion, feels like the perfect continuation of the path I began in 2024. Where love invited me to embrace myself fully, expansion calls me to grow, to open, to step into something even bigger.

When I think of this, I picture myself standing on one leg, arms wide, face lifted to the horizon. The feeling of openness, of reaching for the expansive unknown, fills me with hope and energy. This is my vision for the new year: fierce love, soft expansion, and a radiant light that reaches far beyond myself.

”Zen Girl” 2022

What word will guide you into this new year? What will you shed to make room for your own expansion?

Let’s step into 2025 with courage, curiosity, and a fierce love for who we are and who we’re becoming.