How to Choose a Focus Word for the Year Ahead

focus-word

With Christmas just around the corner, now is a great time to choose your focus word for the New Year!

I have changed to the very core in some aspects… I’ve had to grow up… (about time – I know!!) and there have been some amazing people (you know who you are) in my life whom I have to thank for acting as catalysts. For next year, I’m contemplating choosing the word ‘ease.’ I will be in a Temperance year and would like to be able to engage more deeply in the process of soul alchemy with the effortless focus of The Magician. Ease encompasses being both in a state of grace and in a state of flow. Ease is a word that reminds me to relax because all is well…

Ease is not passive. Like putting yourself in a state of flow or grace, ease takes constant adjustment and keeping the ego in check. The ego thrives off high tension and soaring stress levels. The ego is sensationalist and easily bored. As much as I would like to announce the complete mortification of my ego after this Death year, it simply hasn’t happened yet… so I must continue to choose ease, grace and flow… and I have this hunch that if I focus on ease, the latter two might just follow.

In a state of ease, I will be more receptive (a prerequisite for both grace and flow), more relaxed and more contented. Believe it or not, ease is our natural state. It is only once we start judging and comparing ourselves to others that we become encumbered with dis-ease…

3 Easy Steps to Choosing Your Focus Word for the Year Ahead

  • Take stock of where you are now. What lesson are you currently integrating and how is it changing you?
  • Think of where you want to be a year from now. What has shifted within?
  • What does it take to create this shift – choose one word to describe the quality of the agent of change… Voilà, you have your focus word for the year ahead!

You can, of course, also pull a Tarot card for each of these questions…

focus-word-tarot-spread

FOCUS WORD SAMPLE READING WITH THE FRIDEBORG TAROT

Where I am now: 7 of Wands – Learning to choose my fights wisely
Where I want to be a year from now: Queen of Wands – Confident and fun
What it takes to create this shift: 3 of Swords – Complete acceptance of the fights I cannot win. Acceptance is the active part of ease. Admitting defeat is part of this journey. Accepting that life is full of pain and suffering equally so… What we resist persists. I know this all too well-being a chronic pain sufferer. Physical pain has taught me an extremely valuable lesson: accepting it and breathing through it works better than trying to resist it. I wish this lesson to permeate through to the deeper layers of me in the year ahead.

I was quite amazed at how well these randomly drawn Frideborg Tarot cards fit with where I am and what I wish to achieve in the year ahead. Yep, ‘ease’ is a keeper!

Which word might YOU choose?

Blessed Be!

Lisa

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Comments 7

  1. I had no clue what focus word to choose for 2017, so I did the reading first. There cards I picked were:

    1. Where I am now – 5 of pentacles
    2. Where I want to be a year from now – 7 of pentacles
    3. What it’ll take to make this shift – King of pentacles

    With this reading, I chose “perserverance.”

    I’m currently feeling adrift and displaced. Something is missing from my life, and I need to go out and discover what it is.

    I want to be nurturing what brings me positive returns and seeing the results of my labor. I want to be comfortable discarding what drains me and my resources.

    To get to where I want to be, I need to be practical and invest in my long term goals with energy, confidence, and charisma. I need to do what needs to be done.

    Thank you for sharing this spread, Lisa!

  2. My word I heard within was Honor which feels good to me.

    I pulled cards on it and here is what I got using the Frideborg Tarot.

    Where am I now? 9 of Pentacles
    Where I want to be a year from now? Page of Wands
    What it takes to create this shift? 4 of Pentacles

    Right now I am seeking ways to honor my true self by honoring what makes me worthy and rich. This screams individuality and independence to me.

    I would like to be that spark of new energy. Being more adventurous and driven to honor my creative gifts.

    Creating this shift would mean that I will have to buckle down and ground my energy. Reserving my energy by way of planning. I heard planning with this card.

    Thank you Lisa for sharing!

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  3. My word for 2017 is “mindfulness”.

    I used your amazing deck of cards (that arrived in the post the other day! THANK YOU!!! xxx) and pulled
    1. 4 of Cups
    2. Wheel of Fortune
    3. Ace of Cups

    I am currently bored, and discontent and am not “turning inward” to find my bliss.
    I want to be content and ultimately aware of negative patterns that have seen me going from absolute joy the one day to utter despair the next.
    I’m going to find peace of mind through spiritual awareness, going with the flow and enhancing my intuition by being MINDFUL.

    Fantastic spread. Thanks for your guidance.

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      Thanks for sharing, Garth – ‘mindfulness’ is a great focus word and those cards are an excellent fit since. The Wheel is about learning to centre ourselves and that is only possible once we become mindful and able of being the Observer of our thoughts and emotions rather than identifying with them. Blessings, Lisa

  4. Love this idea of how to choose my word for the year! And I love your word, too, though it certainly won’t be mine 😀 Just writing that, I am drawn to the word complete. Of course, it will only be a partial, temporary completion, but there are several big things that need to come to completion…

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