Howd’y my sleuthy peeps! I hope this New Year is treating you right so far. Mine honestly hasn’t really slowed since the holiday. In the next couple of weeks I going to carve out some down time to recharge my batteries and breathe through the intentions I have set for this year. Did you catch my article towards the end of last year about creating Intentional Practices? A few years ago I decided to embrace the reality of life with chronic illness and forgo my normal goal setting practices and adopted Word Claiming and Visioning practices. Today I want to walk you through the word I claimed for the year and how I got there. Plus, a bomb fabulosity GIVEAWAY!
How The Process Unfolds
Normally word claiming is a process for me. A couple of weeks before the new year I start praying through what my word will be for the following year. These are super simple and quick prayers and I write down whatever words that come to mind. Every few days or so I go back to that list of words and pray over them and ask if there are any words that I can cross off the list or anymore that I should add to it. It is a very intuitive thing for me. I seek God and His direction for me and welcome His presence in this practice.
Creating Space
Like with any intentions I set, I need to create space for them to come forth. At the end of the year, I set an hour or two aside and go deep! This year I turned on my himalayan salt lamp and I diffused some Oils of Bible essential oil so my atmosphere around me was dialed in! I just sat on my bed and journaled, prayed, eliminated words and lo and behold a couple of them rose to the top. I took my time with those two words and prayed over them and then it was like it it hit me.
My Word
My word for this next year is LIFE. The moment after I claimed the word LIFE, I looked up what the Greek word for LIFE is ’cause that’s just how I roll. Look at what I found in this powerful article:
In the Greek language, three different words—bios, psuche, and zoe—are translated as “life” in English, and each has a different meaning. Here are some examples of where each is used:
1. Bios – This Greek word refers to the life of the physical body and is where we get the word biology.
2. Psuche– The Greek word here refers to the psychological life of the human soul, that is, the mind, emotion, and will. It is where we get the word psychology.
3. Zoe – Here the Greek word refers to the uncreated, eternal life of God, the divine life uniquely possessed by God.
How amazing is that? I love that LIFE encompasses the physical body, the human soul, the mind, the will and emotions as well as the eternal life. LIFE leaves me in awe and with reverence.
The Reality
If I’m completely honest (when am I not, right?!) when I chose the word LIFE it seemed kind of odd for the likes of me. Life with illnesses has not always looked like the life I had hoped for. In fact just surviving some years through life has been a feat. Last year was an extremely rough year for me health wise. I had two bouts of the shingles, I was hospitalized twice, I had crazy infections that wouldn’t go away, I was diagnosed with 5 more illnesses…it was rough.
But true LIFE beyond the physical crept through the fog and the wilderness to show itself. I enjoyed some of the greatest moments of my LIFE last year.
I can’t even pretend to know what this new year will bring, but I am going to focus on sowing the seeds of life and cutting down the weeds that try to interfere with that life.
Symbol & Giveaway
When I finally settle on my word of the year, I like to have some sort of physical symbol to remind me of it and in a sense ground me to that word. This year I knew I wanted a piece of jewelry to have the word LIFE on it. I ran across Nicole from Pure Soul Holistics on Instagram randomly one day. I clicked on her feed and I LOVED her jewelry that she made so I clicked on her website in her profile and I was just like….WHOA! I loved EVERYTHING she created. I am fairly picky so I was blown away that it all just spoke to me and I loved all her pieces. So this is where I get visual with you because ain’t no words I say will do her her justice.
This only scratches the surface, folks! Aren’t they just wonderful works of art? I love that she works with copper, metals and leather to create such unique and rich pieces, all of which are upcycled. I call her work perfectly imperfect. In addition to what you see on her Instagram page and her site, she also does custom pieces. That is why I reached out to her. I approached her about creating a ring with the word LIFE on it and this is what she came up with…
Every time that I look at it, I tear up. It is a beautiful and powerful symbol and I cannot thank Nicole enough for creating this for me. And because Nicole is our people, she was totally down for a GIVEAWAY! You wanna know what wonderful piece we are giving away? Take a look…
How perfect. I CHOOSE LOVE. There is no better time then now to live by that statement. You wanna know how to enter?
Go to our Instagram page>Like the photo about the Giveaway>Follow us and Pure Soul Holistics on Instagram and tag a friend in the comment section of the Instagram Giveaway post. We’ll pick a winner at random on February 3rd.
If you’re not all about Giveaways or just can’t wait, Nicole is offering our readers 20% OFF her entire store through February 15th if you use COUPON CODE: ichooselove. I told you she is our people! If you would like to check out more of her pieces, please visit her site Pure Soul Holistics or visit her on Instagram. She is a gem to work with and honestly, what she created for me was above and beyond my expectations. You are in good hands with her.
You know something? It is not too late to take some time and claim a word for this year or this season of life. It has been powerful for me on so many levels.
Do you word claim? If so, what is your word for the year? How does word claiming benefit you?
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