As we head toward the end of the year, it’s natural to reflect on the past year and think about the future.

It’s natural to think about what we’ve experienced, what we’ve gone through, and what we want, what what we feel called toward.

Many people make resolutions for the year ahead, consider changes they’d like to make, or think about the things they’d like to work toward. It can feel like a fresh start, an opening, a beginning.

And while January 1st can be a fresh start, an opening, a beginning—so can any other moment of our lives. The point, really, is to understand that we can start anew in any moment.

We can soften and connect to ourselves in any moment. We can choose to do the things we want to do at any time of the year.

We can move toward what we want and open up to what we long for in any moment, and we should, really, do it right away, because we’re living our lives in the moment we’re in.

We can make the choice to change or do something differently, now.

We can choose to take action toward what it is we want in life, now.

We can choose to pursue something, now.

We can begin to break habits of thinking or behavior, now.

We can honor ourselves, now.

Here are 10 empowering reminders we can carry with us:

1. We can’t always control what happens in life, but we can choose to be intentional with how we react to what happens.

2. It’s empowering to look for the opportunities in life, the potential in each moment.

3. It’s important to be honest with ourselves—about how we feel, what we want, what we like, how we want to spend our time, and what we feel called toward.

4. We can learn to flow with life, accept it, and accept where we are, even as we take action toward what we want or where we want to be.

5. There are little things we can appreciate each day.

6. Life feels easier if we honor our phases of life, if we learn to flow with the current of life rather than resist it.

7. We can learn to let go of what isn’t true or right for us, let go of ideas and beliefs and patterns of behavior that don’t resonate with us.

8. It’s important to become familiar with feeling uncomfortable; discomfort often comes with change, even longed-for, positive change, simply because that change feels unfamiliar.

9. We can change the stories we tell ourselves.

10. There is beauty and good and kindness in the world.

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