When I began this year, I was welcoming in the idea of taking everything that is good in and around me and polishing it off to become great. As I looked at what that would look like in my thoughts, words and actions I decided that the word that would capture this best for 2021 would be refinement. If you have hung around me for any amount of time you know that choosing a word or intention for your year is an absolute must. To me it creates a map or a guide as to how I will navigate the terrain that I will encounter throughout the 365 days of being human.

I set out to start making soft and subtle adjustments to my mindset and how I show up in the world, and the result has been incredible.

For the last eight or nine years I have been pushing so hard in my business(es) and in my own personal life, and my words of the year have been a definite reflection of that push up until 2021. The last several years my words have been ones like bold, reverence, flourish, and limitless. I have spent that last few years rallying around bettering my business and my personal growth. I feel like I have been in a constant push for several years which takes a ton of energy. Prior to that some of my words were essence, discover, and peace and each of those years brought some fantastic and grueling challenges to be within alignment with those intentions. This year though I began the process of softening a bit and living with a bit less intensity and refining aspects of my life. Realizing toward the end of 2020, I was exhausted I decided stop spinning and instead sit with what is already amazing and make it better.

Here is how I did:

• I took a chance early this year that I could find work in the big city of Denver serving adults with brain injuries and four agencies said YES. The work has been so fulfilling and validates me in many ways. I have been an adaptive yoga teacher for many, many years but have stayed “safe” within my own little city and venturing out was a definite refining all that is good, and make it better decision.

• I let go of teaching classes that drain, exhaust, or don’t align with my soul, and instead dove into more of what DOES feed and nourish me.

• I discovered several close people in my life who I thought I knew really well and I felt had my best interest in mind, were very different than I thought. I chose to distance myself from that kind of energy because it was only hurting me. The freedom that has come from cleaning house as far as who I surround myself with has been liberating.

• I let go of my attachments to outcomes related to finances and instead decided that as I spend money, I receive money. I opened the flow of reciprocity and the results have been beautiful.

• I found my healthy weight about eighteen years ago as I let go of about eighty pounds and I have felt pretty strong despite my orthopedic challenges, BUT I took on a strength training program that has transformed me from being a very fit person to an incredibly strong and toned person. Besides the physical difference, I am empowered and confident in my body which is something of recent years I have not felt often.

• I was able to fulfill of dream of refining my living space by renovating my house on a somewhat large scale and pay cash for most of it.

• I realized this fall that being in alignment with my values or principles is the number one way for me to stay in the flow of goodness in all areas of my life. Step outside of those, and I become lost quite quickly. I review those vales often, especially before I make a major decision.

• Mostly this year I spent cleaning up the parts of my life that were cluttered, unfulfilling, distracting, and at times destructive. Instead, I was busy making a simplified and glorious version of myself shine in the world.

As I gratefully spend the next day or so of 2021, I am soaking in the processes I have discovered and am preparing to close this chapter. Look for something amazing for 2022 for myself and the world.