You may think that as a spiritual person, that resolutions are not for you, but New Year’s celebrations are actually a highly spiritual time of year. If you’re someone who wants to connect more deeply to Spirit, learn about yourself (the ego), and understand others around you, a spiritual New Year’s resolution might be perfect for you.
These seven spiritual New Year’s resolutions will help you establish a more spiritual practice and enhance your time on earth as a human.
*I use “God,” “the Universe,” and “Spirit” interchangeably in this article. Other words you might use include “Goddess,” “Source,” or “the Vortex.” Any or all of these are applicable, so use what works for you!
Setting A New Year’s Resolution with a Spiritual Focus
I believe that New Year is a very spiritual time of year, and it is the perfect time to focus on personal accountability and change.
As we move into 2024 next year, Pluto moves into Aquarius for the second time and won’t retrograde out. This “Pluto in Aquarius” era is what many astrologists are calling the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, a time when the collective consciousness is raised: people are more understanding, spiritual, and less emotionally reactive.
In other words, this is the perfect time in your life to try a spiritual New Year’s resolution.
Try a New Year’s Aspiration
One of the things that I learned while taking an online meditation retreat with Plum Village is to consider setting a New Year’s aspiration in place of a resolution.
A resolution is a more structured goal with an end. For example, a resolution might be to read a book every week during the new year. It’s measurable and easy to keep track of.
An aspiration is more general and a looser goal. An aspiration might sound like, “I want to cultivate more connection with others,” or “I want to be kinder to others this year.”
So really, many of these spiritual New Year’s resolutions below are less measurable and qualify more as aspirations rather than specific goals. (But that’s okay! Spirituality lends itself more toward broader goals and concepts anyway!)
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7 Powerful, Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions
1. Learn about spirituality
The first step you can take on your spirituality journey is to learn more about spirituality in general.
Start by reading. I’ve compiled a list of 16 Powerful Books to Read on Spirituality and Awakening, and they’re all so different and varied. Some people may be interested in 365 daily contemplations, or others may be interested in meditation as an atheist.
You might next try some spiritual activities like meditation, prayer, ancestor veneration, self-hypnosis, tarot reading, or lucid dreaming.
Getting curious about how others connect to Spirit can enhance your own spirituality!
RELATED POST: The 10 Books That Changed My Life (as a Woman)
2. Learn about other peoples and others’ religions
There are so many ways people all over the world connect with the divine. If we want to be truly spiritual, then understanding that people choose different ways to express their spirituality and connection to God is absolutely crucial.
I practice Buddhism, and the Four Noble Truths explain that clear sight (understanding) helps move us toward relief of suffering. In Christianity, those who are quick to anger, those who are fools, they lack understanding. When you work toward understanding, you are closer to God.
If you’re Christian, you might be interested to learn about Islam. Or perhaps, if you’re Buddhist, you may want to learn about Wicca.
There are over 4,200 different religions, churches, and denominations throughout the world! If this is something you’re interest in, try Learn Religions, which is chock full of interesting information and is bound to teach you a lot.
3. Resolve to be mindful and live in the present moment
When you’re connected with Spirit, the Universe, God, or whomever you believe in, you know that there is a divine purpose to everything that happens in your life. It’s easy for us to worry about what the future holds and to try to control every detail of our lives around us.
But being deeply spiritual means focusing that energy on the present moment. Being mindful in the present moment might mean putting down your phone and enjoying time after dinner with your kids. It might mean breathing deeply a few times while you brush your teeth at night.
There are so many ways to be fully in the present moment of your life. If you choose this as your New Year’s resolution, you’ll need to decide what that would look like for you.
4. Meditate Regularly
They say that prayer is speaking to God, and meditation is listening to God. In order to have a full relationship with the divine, communication must go both ways. (This is a great practice in your earthly relationships as well!)
Meditation is a practice in which you focus your attention on your breath and let everything else go. It is the ultimate mindful practice, as it requires you to let go of everything going on in the world around you as well as the thoughts that drift inside your mind.
Many people shy away from meditation because they don’t understand it or claim that it’s too difficult, but meditation does not need to be done perfectly to be effective. And there are so many benefits of meditation as well, including better sleep and better mood.
RELATED POST: Life Itself is a Meditation, How to Make Mindfulness a Way of Life
5. Choose Discipline
Another fantastic spiritual New Year’s resolution would be to practice a greater level of discipline in your life. From the Bible to Buddhist teachings, high levels of discipline have always been associated with increased spirituality or connection to Spirit.
Discipline is something that our ancestors practiced well, because not being disciplined could mean not surviving. We live very comfortable lives in this modern era, so increasing your self discipline is no easy feat. Most people fall into whatever is comfortable… snacking on the couch and binging Netflix in their free time or the like. But having greater discipline may feed more satisfaction and greater success into your life.
Choose to work out on a regular schedule. Meditate twice a day for 20 minutes. Eat more nutritious foods and let go of sugar. Clean your house regularly. Declutter and donate your unused stuff. Self-discipline leads you to a greater connection with God.
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6. Deeply surrender
Surrender is the process of letting go and giving everything up to the energy of the Universe. This makes it a great spiritual New Year’s resolution and a good way to improve your life.
In fact, Michael Singer talks about this in his memoir The Surrender Experiment. Surrender requires you to follow where the Universe leads you and to have abundant levels of trust that you are doing exactly what the Universe wants you to do.
It means combining mindfulness, meditation, discipline, and gut intuition in order to listen and act on what the Universe is telling you.
7. Release the ego
This is not a New Year resolution for beginners! Resolving to release your ego is a big task and may take many years (if not your whole life) to complete.
Dissolving the ego is the end goal of religions like Buddhism, and it takes a combination of all of these other resolutions: understanding, discipline, meditation, and surrender.
It means that you have let go of all your own beliefs, issues, worries, and fully trust the Universe. You serve the Universe/God exactly as it/they want you to.
Simple, right?!
Conclusion
These spiritual New Year’s resolutions are a great place to begin when you want to connect on a deeper level with the Universe/God/Spirit.
What is your spiritual New Year’s resolution this year?
Drop me a comment below to share! I’d love to hear from you!
Make sure you check out our Wild Simple Joy Resource Page for New Year’s Resolutions!
