The New Year's Eve Cleanse

I have a New Year’s Eve ritual. I’ve practiced it since I was thirteen, and I can almost feel the difference if I don’t complete my ritual by the end of January 1st.

I try to ring in the new year with a clean slate, meaning I clean. I start with myself and make sure I have a nice bath, wash my hair, put on a mask, change my toenail polish, clean my jewelry, sage/bless my house, and wash my clothes. I eat a lot of vegetables during the day to help cleanse myself of all the holiday junk food. And I change my sheets. I also write one final entry in my journal for the year reflecting on my biggest challenges or lessons. If it was a particularly taxing year, I try to symbolically let it go by writing all that happened and ripping or burning the paper.

The last thing I do is ring in the new year with positive emotions. We’ve never been big into parties, so we stay home, eat seafood, drink, and watch our favorite comedy or a concert. We quickly switch to a New Year’s show for the countdown, then resume our program. Whatever we watch, it has to produce positive, happy feelings.

Not to sound superstitious, but I had some really shitty years when we broke this rule. The positive vibes rule is much more important than cleaning.

Even as a kid, I did not believe in bringing old baggage into the new year, so I have always done my spring purge and cleaning in December instead of March. It feels more purposeful to me.

This year, I have been inundated with parties. Frankly, I am exhausted. That also means I am behind in my purging, but don’t worry, I am flexible and quick. I am willing to extend the purge to January 2nd if necessary.

Okay, so why am I telling you all this? Because 2020 is not just the start of a new year. Honestly, I don’t care about it being a new year as much as I do the fact that 2020 is the start of a new decade. I think that deserves a little more pomp and circumstance. Ten years is a long time, but not so long when you really think about it. People, the Y2K bug scare was twenty years ago! For my younger readers, Google it. We thought the world as we knew it would end. It was crazy, yet hilarious at the same time. Okay, random thought, the Y2K Bug started the seafood tradition in my family. My parents splurged on a ton of seafood because we weren’t sure if we’d have lights and technology once midnight hit. My stepdad wanted us to have a memorable meal in case we would be relegated to canned food in the year 2000.

My point? Personally, I am all about symbolism. If you have had a rough few years and you really believe that 2020 will bring a fresh start, then you need to be willing to be fresh as well, so to speak.

So, meditate, clean, take a bath, go run and sweat, something. Anything. Celebrate this new decade with a reset and different mindset.

Welp, gotta go clean my house now. Count down to the new decade!

Photo by Gratisography