Intro/Outro Music: 0:13

Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an illuminating space where psychology, spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright, the clinical psychologist with a mystic mind.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 0:33

Aloha everybody. Welcome to your Heart Magic. This is Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright, and this is the last podcast episode of 2024. I am looking forward to all the things to come that are going to be happening in the new year, that I thought I would take this last episode and share a new piece that I wrote and some personal reflections as we move into 2025.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 1:02

I always feel like this time of year is a little bit of a time warp and time gets a little bit slippery, and that space between somewhere right around solstice and then going into the new year with the holidays and time off, work and things being closed and gatherings and just a lot of different things that perhaps we might not normally have in our daily routines things get just a little bit murky and I always find myself saying wait, what day is it? What year are we in? What holiday are we celebrating? So I love how things start to get watery and a little bit more fluid at this time as we're shifting into a new year and I like to take this space when I'm having my time alone and having my solitude to spend a little bit of time reflecting on the gifts of the year and the things that happened and ordering my heart and organizing my heart, organizing myself, taking inventory, spending a little bit of time to check in with where I'm at. How do I feel about the things that happened this year? How do I feel about different areas in my personal life, my professional life, my creative life, my spiritual life, different aspects of my wholeness? And I like to know where I'm at with those things.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 2:32

And when I talk about the concept of having an ordered heart, organizing our hearts and having a well-ordered heart, a well-ordered heart is not having everything feel peaceful and resolved. There are many things that many of us are in the middle of and we are going to continue the arc of that story in the new year. Most things we're in the middle of and we're continuing an arc of a story into the new year. So many of us have many questions in our heart and things that we are still working on shifting and resolving and discovering and wondering, and that's just all part of the human journey. The turn of the calendar year certainly doesn't change that. But I always feel that if I can at least know what feels settled, what feels unsolved, what's still a question, where have I found forgiveness this year? Where might I still be holding on to some sort of stickiness or resentment or something like that. And how do I feel about that? Am I ready to let that go if I'm grappling with something and it still feels sticky and I don't quite feel at a clear and free space yet, at least knowing where I'm at with that and what I'm holding on to and making as much sense of it as I can.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 3:53

Those things help me organize my inner world and I like to think of it that I've got this big work table like art class as a kid, where sometimes there would be a huge craft table or some workbench or something like that with all these art supplies out over it and you'd get to go in and do crafts or do a painting or something like that. And I think about this work table that I have, this invisible one, this inner one, that's my work table of psyche and heart and soul. And I like to imagine that I'm going into that work table and seeing what's sitting out on it and what's left undone and what can be cleared and what can I at least stack into a neat little pile and what's still a work in progress. So those are the kinds of things that I do towards the end of the year and I recently wrote a piece about that that I thought I would share today on the podcast. This is called reordering my heart December reflections. Something I've increasingly noticed over the past few years is a calling to turn inward come December, as the sun rises a little later and the ocean crashes with more ferocity at night, I feel a soulful need to take inventory, reflect and close things out as the end of the year draws near, as if I'm clearing space from my inner work table of psyche and soul. Sometimes I make lists in my journal, going month by month or grouping things by quarter and writing down the major themes, occurrences and lessons. It's my way of putting a mile marker on my journal page and acknowledging I was here, these things happened In some way. This all helps shape, flavor and give scope to this past year. It's a mindful act of synthesizing and integrating that helps me organize my heart, organize my inner world and clean up any debris that doesn't need to go with me into the new year. I like to travel light when I can, without the weight of emotional baggage and mental clutter.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 6:00

2024 was a quick, moving year for me. I often felt I was bopping from one thing to the next to the next and then repeat An endless cycle of busy B-ness. I juggled multiple creative offerings collaborations, my writing, private practice, marathon training and family and home. Mid-march through the beginning of December felt fast moving and it was sometimes hard to catch my breath. Looking back on those seasons, I cannot imagine not having had those experiences and the abundant gifts each gave me. But my life was also constantly scheduled and my energy output far outweighed any rest, receptivity or ability to fully receive and feel joy.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 6:48

I learned a lot about myself this year. I learned that I could juggle much more than I imagined. I learned that when I asked the universe for help, creative inspiration and the energy to focus and follow through the right resources will show up. I learned a lot about capability and a new sense of self-efficacy. But I also learned that just because I can triage, all of that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for my nervous system or points me in the direction my heart desires to go long term. I have dreams, you see, that I've been following for years and they've been stirring again and asking me to revisit and remap their vision. December has been a month of going inward and reflecting on my choices on different branches of my vocation, and calling on how I want to show up in the new year and on what might need to be released to receive and pour my focus into the things that matter most to my heart.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 7:46

It takes time to become ourselves. Becoming is best understood as our life's work, something we are continually moving toward. Progress is not always steady, nor is it meant to be. We might appear to be moving backward, but something of value might be happening in our souls or we may be learning an important lesson to help us surge forward in a new cycle. We can grapple with who we are and through our grappling, shed old layers. We try on new skins and reinvent. We discover what fits and what's not quite right. We discover what fits and what's not quite right. We are constantly learning and exploring and if we can follow our heart's wisdom and maintain authenticity and integrity as core values, we eventually compass ourselves back to a place of coming home. We return to something core and true within ourselves, having grown more beautiful and real in the process. The beauty of all this is that the path has no right or wrong. All of it is an experience that our soul will use to grow. Even if we feel we've wandered and gotten off course, we will still learn something in the process, and we always have an opportunity to return to our hearts and reconnect with the voice of our souls. We are precisely where we need to be at any moment when we look at it from the vantage point of our soul, and I find that vastly reassuring.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 9:18

As for me, this December I want to listen to the voice of my soul, spend time in solitude to rewild and create space to dream, contemplate and receive. Stay mindful, self-kind and cautious with my yeses. Pay attention to the questions in my heart and trust the answers will come. Pour an extra cup of coffee on the weekend and linger. Write poetry for no other reason than Find tiny moments of seasonal coziness and make space for joy. Be a practitioner of the beauty way and cultivate the art of appreciation. Do the things I know I need to do to contemplate, integrate, distill the answers waiting within and take a little time to reorder my heart.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 10:10

Earlier today, I was walking my dogs, rosie and Frodo, on a road nearby. I'd taken them in the car to get there and it's just a really peaceful place. There's not a lot of traffic, and they were walking along and I was really trying to take the time to notice the trees and the color of the sky. I had Christmas music going to have a little bit of seasonal flavor and I told myself, bethann, like this is joy, this is appreciation. Right now. There are good things happening in this moment to be in the space and to be able to just be open and have an open heart and receive with gratitude the gifts in life. And one of the things that I talked about in this piece is that this past year for me there were times that life was moving like so busy from thing to thing to thing, and I had a lot of commitments this year and I can't imagine not having done them. So I don't have regrets around anything I did.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 11:13

That piece that I just wrote was more of a reflection of, okay, this is how I shaped my 2024. And how does that feel for me? And there was this richness to some of the experiences and to the many things that I was doing. But I also had an awareness this past year that sometimes I couldn't fully receive it. I could not be Rosie and Frodo just walking along. At one point they sat down in the grass and Rosie was just rolling in the grass and she just wanted to enjoy it. Frodo sat down by her and they were in no rush. They were just like in their bliss. And they were in no rush. They were just like in their bliss.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 11:55

And one of the things that I missed this last year were moments, sometimes, of being able to not only be in bliss but to feel it. When we are so busy and so stressed out and our nervous system is constantly going and our adrenals are always responding to the moment and to feeling on call, it's hard to shift to a peaceful place of receptivity, and I think for me, one of my personal reflections in that piece is that was something that was a little bit on the lighter side this year. I would like that to be a little bit more of that in 2025. And it was such a gift to even have space to write this piece and to put these words onto paper.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 12:40

I've talked about often as a writer how, when I'm able to write my truth and write about a season or a soul cycle and put a narrative to it and tell a story around it, it helps me give shape to my experience of self, and then it's such a gift to be able to share it with others and it might resonate with them or they might see an aspect of their journey in it and take one little piece of it and that stays with them them and somehow they make it their own. And we are all reflecting wisdom to each other and kind of collaging and cherry picking and taking these gems that we hear in each other's stories and integrating it into our own story so that we can live with more understanding of ourself and feel more connected on the journey. And so just having the space to write this was a gift, and I have just really been taking this December to reflect and take time and receive and ask myself the question am I investing in my own dreams? Am I investing in somebody else's dream and vision? And come back to a space of evaluation around my own dreams and what my bigger dream is, how I have been making progress towards that dream.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 14:03

For me it is expressing my voice, it's writing and it's books and it's being an author and it's combining psychology and spirituality and creativity and color and all these things that I have an interest in and these different aspects of myself. But it's taking all of those and weaving them into words and eventually those words make their way into books and I'm hoping to do a deck of oracle cards at some point, and so those are the things on my radar as we're moving into 2025. And I'm just taking this time to find joy, to order my heart, evaluate and come back to the core of myself and the core of my dreams. So that is a little bit of a work in progress, but that's where I'm at as we end the month of December and wherever you're at, I hope you take a little space between now and even into January. There's not a timeline for when we do this work, but a little bit of time to order your own heart and check in with yourself and see where you're at and check in with your dreams and the progress that you are making on your path.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright: 15:15

Give yourself credit for the wins that you've had and the wonderful things that you have done this year. Give yourself compassion for areas that you might want to acknowledge that you're still working on things that you say well. I had that experience and it didn't work out well, so I don't want to do that again. Check in with yourself on what feels sticky still and what you're working on releasing and what is lighting your heart up at this time, and I will be back next week and the new year with a brand new your Heart Magic. In the meantime, have a beautiful week and, as always, be well, be love, be you and be magic.

Intro/Outro Music: 16:07

You've been listening to your Heart Magic with Dr Bethann Kopansky-Wright. You've been listening to your Heart Magic with Dr Beth-Anne Kopansky-Wright. Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your light.