Burning Bowl Ceremony

The New Year offers us the promise that we can leave behind the things which no longer serves us. It gives us the opportunity to begin fresh and new.

The New Year's Eve Burning Bowl Ceremony is a time to relinquish anything that burdens my mind and at the same time identify those things in my life that I wish to occur in the coming year.

The ceremony is a way of letting go of what no longer works for us. We write on paper, things, ideas and situations, that we no longer wish to have power in our lives, that we want to release in the coming year, and symbolically "burn" the list and get rid of them. The second part of the service allows us to ask for what we wish to bring into our lives to create a clean, fresh start of our hopes and desires in the new year.

So, I spent yesterday afternoon preparing and thinking about the things that I wanted to release, let go, and discard from my life.  Thankfully, my husband took the kids out of the house for a couple of hours, allowing me time to focus and set my intentions.  My list specifically stated the things that do me no good.  

The Ceremony was emotional for me. I placed my paper into the flame and held it briefly. At that very moment, I was releasing my worries, negativity and fears. I watched it burn to ashes before walking away. I didn't look back. As I returned to my seat I cried. The ceremony made it official. There was a sense of peace and comfort within me. I intentionally released all the things that have been weighing on me. The fear and uncertainties that have consumed me since my cancer diagnosis. The anger and guilt of losing my Mom.  All of it - now gone.

I'm moving on to new life experiences and I no longer want to drag my worries, fears and anger around with me.  

I joyously move into this New Year to meet, to accept, and to express my highest good.