I’m expanding my horizons this year.
Every January, I look forward to discovering my “word of the year” to help guide me and inspire me for the long year ahead. Some years, the word comes easily to me, and other years, I really have to do some soul-searching to find the right word. This was one of those soul-searching years. I thought I had my word back in November, but it just didn’t sit right with me when 2020 finally rolled around.
7 words for the year…yikes!
So, I went back to the work, using Susannah Conway’s process (I’ve used her process for 6 straight years). I eventually got down to 7 words (gah!), and I knew right away this was not going to work. I needed to get down to at least two words.
My 7 words were trust, allow, expand, surrender, deepen, nurture, and expansive. Yep, I was all over the place. I decided to sit with these words for a while and not feel rushed to arrive at my word. I think that’s the most important thing if you choose a word each year. It can’t be forced; it needs to come to you peacefully, even if it doesn’t arrive in time for New Year’s Day.
Narrowing it down.
Eventually, I narrowed it down to two words and felt good about “expansive” and “nurture.” Then, I sat with them for a bit. I journaled about each word and how it made me feel.
Expansive: Learn new things, meet new people, try new things, let in, change, grow, arms open
Nurture: Help, listen, slow down, deepen, improve, include
Then, I looked for signs…let the Universe decide, right? On January 10th, I did a full moon tarot spread and two of the cards had “expansion” and “expansive” in the meaning. So…I felt like that was a pretty good sign. As I started working through the definition of expansive, I really started to feel the vibe.
Word of the Year for 2020: Expansive.
So here are the definitions for expansive and how they perfectly fit in my vision for the year.
Expansive
- Having a capacity or a tendency to expand (good for my business!)
- Causing or tending to cause expansion
- Characterized by high spirits, generosity or readiness to talk (love “high spirits”)
- Marked by expansion
- Characterized by richness, abundance, or magnificence (yep, this is my word!)
I’ve been feeling like expanding my horizons this year. Learn French, listen to new music, read a lot of books, spend time with really great people, travel, listen, sit still, ponder, exercise, research and basically, take in more. So, my 2020 word of the year is Expansive, and I’ve been writing in my journal each day, “how will I be expansive today?” And it all feels really good.
Do you choose a word or phrase of the year? I’d love to know your word.
