In this end-of-the-year guided meditation led by Julie Potker you will use your breath to breathe in healing, awareness, and gratitude. She completes the mediation with the poem, "For the End of the Year", by Donna Ashworth.

'For the End of the Year", by Donna Ashworth.

Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?

Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?

I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation,

for all we survived.

And I say a new year should start with promises

to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear,

as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.

And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge

to rest, before our bodies force us.

Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens.

Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection

to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity

we truly are inside.

Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth,

with demands on our already over-strained humanity.

When we could be learning to accept,

that we were always supposed to be imperfect.

And that is where the beauty lives, actually.

And if we can only find that beauty,

we would also find peace.

I wish you peace in 2024.

Everything else is all just a part of it.

Let it be so.

`"For the End of the Year," by Donna Ashworth

Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.

Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.com

This podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.