Welcoming 2020: Stepping Toward the Light

As I write this on December 22nd, I’m fully aware that the winter solstice has just passed, that each day will carry a bit more light until we reach the longest day of the year on June 20th. Yet as I was doing a bit of research just now, I was surprised to see how slowly we begin to welcome the light back in.

Today we will have less than one second more light than yesterday. On Christmas day, we’ll have a mere 12 more seconds of light than the day before. By January 31st, we’ll be welcoming in a full two minutes and 14 seconds of extra daylight as compared to January 30th.

The amount of extra light each day continues to increase all the way up until the spring equinox on March 19th, when the daily increase in daylight peaks at nearly three minutes.

In your own healing and growth, the progress at first may be slow. But a shift in direction, no matter how slowly you start moving in that new direction, is significant. Going from movement into darkness to movement toward lightness is significant. And, as you build new habits and incorporate new practices into your daily life, the change becomes more apparent. You begin to grow more quickly because in those first days of slow growth, you practiced patience with yourself, and the tiny incremental changes that were at first nearly invisible begin to happen without much effort on your part. And now you are able to not only sustain 12 extra seconds of daylight per day but actually build on those 12 seconds as a small part of what you are capable of integrating into your life and into your being.

I am reminded of a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Mark Manson, entitled “Your Goals Are Overrated”, which he wrote as a rebuttal of New Year’s Resolutions. In short, he argues for the practice of introducing habits over the idea of setting goals.

As we usher in this new decade together, I wish you patience and perseverance. May your habits support you bringing your highest and best self into the light.

On bringing your highest and best self to light with Molly Coeling, LMT & RMT