First Week of January: Doors Opening, Doors Closing

The ending of our calendar year marks a symbolic turning point that focuses collective awareness on the reviewing of what has been and on what’s to come. It’s a doorway of sorts into a new cycle of life, a fresh start, like a new-fallen snow where, briefly, everything seems clean and unmarked. The renewal we feel in this deep, dark season of winter is an inward one. Unlike the rebirth of springtime that propels us out of doors, the garden we’re growing now is an internal one. We all sense this on some level—explaining the collective flurry toward self-improvement as many people make New Year’s resolutions, join gyms, and renew intentions to quit bad habits.

Each New Year offers us a symbolic door of opportunity—symbolic because nothing outward has changed. Just as a fresh snowfall doesn’t really clean what’s underneath it, the New Year hasn’t changed anything but our minds and our motivation which, in and of itself, makes this a tremendously potent time for personal transformation.

At this threshold, it’s only natural to pause for a moment to review the past and anticipate the future. We’ve already accomplished the healing part of this review as we gave attention several weeks ago to the points of darkness of the last year. Now it’s time to acknowledge the points of light, because the best way to create a future full of blessings is to appreciate the ones we’ve already received. In this way, we choose the seeds we want to carry into the future. So our work this week begins with a celebration of the good we’ve experienced over the last year.

Exercise I: Points of Light

In some way, give time and attention this week to reviewing and appreciating the high points of your year. What were the times that held the greatest light, love, and joy for you? What would you identify as the greatest point of light of your year? The following is a suggestion for how to structure this review, but do it any way you like. You don’t need to complete this part before going on to the rest of the lesson.

A Three-Day Review

Set aside some time alone in the evening for several days. On the first evening, light a candle and take some time to appreciate all the love in your life. Write down everything that comes to you. On the second night, light a candle and spend the time in gratitude for all the things you’ve received, accomplished, and succeeded at over the last year. Make a list of everything that comes to you. On the third night, light a candle and spend this time feeling excitement and anticipation for all the good things you’d like to create, experience, and receive over the next year. Write all these down.

Exercise II: A Doorway of Opportunity

According to Chinese medicine, this is the season to conserve energy and pull within. Consequently, it’s not really the best time for all the partying that typically starts the new year; or for the kind of New Year’s resolutions that attempt to atone for holiday sins with big life-style changes that seldom last. This is, however, a perfect time to inwardly nurture a new beginning. While outer growth peaks in the summer, inner growth peaks now.

In keeping with the season, the following exercise is for looking within and discerning our path of highest growth so that we can make the most of the symbolic “door of opportunity” the New Year brings.

Before going any further, make sure you have some quiet, uninterrupted time for imagining. This isn’t so much a guided meditation as a daydream, so no music or “atmosphere” is required. Put yourself in a relaxed, quiet frame of mind with some deep, slow breaths. Read the next section slowly, with your imagination awake, and let the words carry you somewhere:

A Daydream

Relax your body and quiet your thoughts with some deep, slow breaths….

Let your awareness be soft and open. Imagine how it feels to shift your vision from focused attention on a small detail to a broad focus that takes in a whole landscape at once and let your mind relax open in this same way….

Now, allow to come to mind the image of a door. Close your eyes for a moment before reading further and let this image appear. See what pops into mind first and simply notice everything you can about it….

What’s the door made of? What color is it? Notice its size and if it’s wide open, closed, cracked ajar or locked shut. What is the doorway like? How far away does the door appear? What do you see on the other side of it?

Now, imagine that this door is calling you to do something with it. You’ll know what that is because it will feel natural; it will be what you most want to do. It may be that you want to open the door to let something/someone in. Or you may feel drawn to walk through it. If so, what do you see yourself stepping into and what do you see yourself leaving? You may want to close the door to put something behind you or to protect what’s inside. (This isn’t a personality test and there are no right or wrong answers to these questions so don’t try to interpret your images or force anything. Just see what appears.)

Put in writing a description of the door you imagined.

Your Door

Doors are potent symbols of transformation. Rich in metaphorical meaning, doors can open to let in some fresh, new element, or they can offer a threshold to cross, compelling us to take a step; to act; to move into a new realm. And sometimes they are there to be closed, putting an end to a chapter of life, creating closure, or to preserve warmth and protect our inner sanctum. Opening to let something in, closing to put something behind us, closing in cocoon-like, and taking the step that begins a new journey are universal aspects of growth that we all go through at different times.

However the door in your imagination showed up, consider that it’s offering you a personal metaphor full of meaning and information as to how you can move more consciously with the current of your growth at this time. Here are some questions to help you get started in understanding its relevance for you.

Questions for Thought

If your door was opening to let something in, ask yourself, how are you becoming or needing to become more open? Do you need to relax personal defenses and let people in? Is it time to take some emotional risks around vulnerability, trust, and intimacy? Did your door let in light and a breath of fresh air, urging you to open your mind? Do you need to consider a fresh perspective and be less stuck in familiar ways of thinking?
If you felt called to walk through the door in your visualization, how are you currently moving from one state to another in your life? Is it time to take action, summon courage, move into the unfamiliar, be bold, or come out of hiding? Is there an initiation of sorts calling you to step out of the small confines of who you have been to become something more? Is it time to come out of your comfort zone?
If your door was closing, what were you closing it on or closing out? Is there something in your life experience that you’re ready to let go and leave behind? Is it time to put the past behind you? Do you need to find closure to a relationship that’s no longer in your life or one that needs to end? What endings do you need to attend to in order to move into the next phase of life free of unfinished business?
If your door was closing something in, are there ways you need to create strong boundaries in your life? Do you need to say no more often? Do you need to pull in, conserve energy, and be in a cocooning phase to let something incubate internally? Do you need solitude? Or do you simply need to exercise better control over whom you do and don’t allow into your inner sanctum?
If your door posed problems—if it was locked and wouldn’t open, or broken and wouldn’t shut (once my door had a hold on me like an invisible rubber band that pulled me back as I tried to walk through it)—use these “problems” as metaphors for some aspect of your life experience at this time. Let this metaphor tell you what you need to do.

For example, as I reflected on my rubber band door, I realized that even though I wanted to move forward in any number of ways, there were many things dragging me back that had to be addressed first. For me, this had to do with too many time commitments (more importantly, an inability to say no) and a tendency to get distracted by petty dramas that drained my energy from more important things. Over the next two years I took a series of steps to reprioritize my time and did a lot of inner work to release my tendency to get hooked into energy-draining situations. It took this long before I was ready to move freely into the new cycle I envisioned, but then all of a sudden I found myself whooshing forward with new projects at a pace that had seemed impossible before.

What emotion did the image of your door evoke? This will give insight into how you are reacting to the changes in your life. Are you excited and happy in this phase of growth? Or did the image carry with it a sense of sadness, fear, or frustration? Did you feel eagerness to do what the door called you to or reluctance? Life brings a constant river of change. Are you resisting the current, creating more pain and struggle for yourself, or are you flowing gracefully with change?

Create an Assignment for the Week

Let the imagery of your door suggest to you an assignment for the week. Do the action suggested by your door in a way that is an appropriate stretch in the direction you want to grow. It could mean inviting someone into your home, perhaps literally, by having an unaccustomed dinner party, or figuratively by taking an emotional risk to let someone into your heart. It could mean taking some bold action to come out of hiding, get moving, or transition to a new realm. It might involve setting limits, conserving energy, or taking time for yourself.

Exercise III: Make Every Door a Symbolic “Door of Opportunity”

Be aware of actual doors all week. Doors are everywhere and we open, close, and move through them many times a day. As you perform the mundane, physical act of going through doors, hold in mind the metaphor of your inner door. If your door was letting in fresh air, stand at the doorway for a moment before leaving your home and invite new energy into your life. If you were boldly walking through your door, imagine taking a powerful step into a new realm as you walk across thresholds. Or, give extra attention when you close your door and bring to mind all you that are putting behind you or protecting. Let the physical experience of doors this week be a constant reminder and affirmation of the spiritual work you have set in motion