My Word for the Year – FLOURISH! Better than Resolutions!

Have you heard about the new trend?  The one where you don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but you come up with a word that you want to exemplify your year?  I kept seeing posts from my “heroes” and “sheroes” where they were claiming their “words” for 2020.  I read the posts, and the words, and though I found them intriguing; they didn’t really resonate with me.  Some of the “words” were:  transformation, courage, inspiration, guts, grit, gumption, and gusto.  And then…

I realized that one word kept showing up in my life over and over for the last three months and it was showing up in all areas of my life – personal and professional – body, mind, and spirit.  And the word is FLOURISH.

If you follow my blogs, I first mentioned “flourish” in, A New Way to Grieve, on November 1, 2019.  I wrote about the five spiritual steps for healing grief and “flourish” was the fifth step.  I was “given” these steps with guidance from spirit on the other side.  Below is what I wrote:

“FLOURISH by knowing and understanding that grief is a gift. – When I first heard that grief was a gift, I was angry and furious.  How dare anyone say that!  When I was grieving I became like an onion, crying while I peeled the layers away exposing myself to myself.  When I emerged from the grieving process, I finally understood the gift of grief is not in the grief itself; but in embracing that there is life after this life AND in this life.  No pun intended, but I was scared to death to die.  Now I am not afraid to live or die.  I am flourishing.”

The working title for my memoirs that I am currently writing is called Flourish.

The title of the sermon at church was, you guessed it, “Flourish.”

And then in my business life, my Arbonne life, “flourish” began flourishing.  The cover of our new catalog, our mission statement, our charitable foundation, and our new video all have the word “flourish” in them.

So what does “flourish” mean to you?  To me, it means to grow and thrive and be healthy.  It means to be in my prime and in the zone.  Flourishing is prospering and being successful.  Flourishing is finding the joy in life, losing fear, and living from a place of love.  And you can only flourish when you have forgiven – yourself and others.

Another trend is to write a letter from your future self next year at the time and explain just how you are flourishing.  I think I’ll do that!

That reminds me of an exercise I did with my teenage students when I was teaching.  I had the kids write down their goals for the year on a sheet of paper on the first day of school.  I gave them an envelope for them to put them in and seal it, so nobody would know what they had written down except them.  They were instructed to think about them and envision achieving them every day.  I told them I would return the unopened envelope on the last day of school and they could see how well (or not) they did.  The majority of the high schoolers were thrilled with their results.  They were flourishing!

Let me know how you are going to flourish!  Happy New Year!

Oh, I almost forgot!   I have always been a 49ER fan, but now that I am living in Santa Clara county and the Niners are going to the Super Bowl, I am sending “flourishing” thoughts to Miami!