2019 – Core Desired Feelings

As with all the previous years, I knew I wanted to pick my core desired feelings this year, too. If you want to know more about core desired feelings, please go to my post from 2016 and you can see the links there.

I did the exercise this year as I do each year but I was actually feeling not my best self this year when I did them so I am not sure how much I like my answers. So I wanted to focus on how I want to feel this year. What are the feelings I am cultivating? If I get an offer of an opportunity, what are the questions I want to ask myself so I can make a decision around whether I say yes or no? How will I know if this action will make me feel what I want to feel?

I mentioned before that there’s a pattern to my words: I always pick something around peacefulness, something around being brave, something around being open, and then maybe a few new ones. So this year I was curious if I would break the trend.

Here’s what I came up with this year and what they each mean to me:

• Embrace: This is a new word for me. Does this help me embrace who I am? Does this help me embrace my life? Does this help me feel connected to who I am? Is this me stepping into my own power?
• Alive: I’ve had this word before but it felt imperative that I pick it this year. I spent a lot of 2018 not feeling alive. I want to go on adventures. I want to feel my days. I want to feel a decision in my bones. I want to own my life. I want to show up for it. I want to be here. Does the idea of this action make me come alive? Does it make me full, excited, a bit scared? Does it make me smile big and give me butterflies in my stomach?
• Lighter: I think I am picking this word again this year. I love thinking about if a particular action makes me feel lighter. Do I feel more or less burdened by something I do? Does this help me put down something I’ve been carrying? Does it help me get closer to peace and contentment?
• Kind: I want to be kind. I want to take actions that feel kind. Towards other people and towards myself. I want to make sure I am being my kindest self. Will saying yes to this make me feel kind to both the other person and to myself? It’s easy to be kind to others and then walk right through my own boundaries so this word needs a balance.

So there we are. I guess we still have a trend. Embrace and Lighter and my peace and true words, kind is my open word and alive is the brave one.

I love all of these. Most importantly, I can immediately connect with the feeling I get when I say these words. I feel full. I feel content knowing these are the words I want for myself. They don’t feel like a lot of work and they feel joyful. Which is the sign that they are the right words for me right now. I want to feel all of them and I want to make a point to look at my life and my choices through these lenses next year. Here’s to embracing who I am and feeling alive, lighter, kinder in 2019!

ps: After writing all this up, I’ve had the word “surrender” come up several times in my life in a single week. The first time I heard it, I felt it in my bones. And then it kept happening. I am not sure why now but I have decided that it is going to have to be a companion word for me this year. Maybe the universe is telling me I have to surrender to make any of this possible. And when the universe speaks, I listen.