One Word 2024 Check In: FREE & Me

Way back in January, I chose (and wrote about) my One Word for 2024. Remember that? Maybe you did it, too.

This is my 14th year of doing the practice and for 2024, my word is FREE.

Four and a half months in and my word and I are still sizing each other up. Usually by May I’m in full swing: tapping into my word regularly to support and guide me, feeling the nudge to go in the direction the word is inviting me to go.

But not this year. I’ve been giving FREE the side eye for months. I knew it was going to be a challenge (as I wrote about here) and wasn’t really sure what a year of FREE would look like.

Frankly, FREE feels scary. A little untethered. Do I have to shave my head to be FREE of beauty standards? Do I have to get a divorce and live on my own? Do I have to stop working and stand on a cliff edge with the wind blowing over my aforementioned shorn head?

My One Word often asks me to go to an edge, but this feels like a free fall (pun intended). What does it actually mean to be FREE? What will FREE ask me to let go of?

For someone who writes a weekly blog, it might surprise you that I’m a terrible journaler. I’ve attempted it every which way ‘til Tuesday but it never has been my thing.

Recently, I’ve dabbled in a journaling process called Letters From Love. This writing practice was created by author Liz Gilbert 25 years ago when she was in a terrible dark spot. It’s simple and profound: open a notebook and write “Love, what would you have me know today?” and then start writing what Unconditional Love would say. Or put another way, ask a question and then write what you always wished someone would say to you. It’s remarkable -- extraordinary, really – to see what happens. (And if you think, NOTHING will happen if you do it, don’t worry. Everybody thinks that. And amazingly, Love always shows up.)

So after months of not really engaging with FREE — like two petulant kids sitting on opposite sides of the bus decidedly not looking at each other — I decided to write a Letter from Love about what FREE means to me.

Dear Love, What would you have me know about FREE today?

Oh my little freaklette. You can't help yourself sometimes, can you? You get wrapped around your precious axle only to end up in a clump tied up in knots.

Sweetheart, release your grip. Take a breath. Open your front body. Look at the sky. Drink some cool water. Pet the cat. Hug Frank or someone you love...including yourself.

Give yourself a moment to feel. To check in. To connect to the open, airy (breezy, even!) sunny yet cool sensation of FREE.

FREE doesn't mean you have to cut all ties and commitments.

FREE doesn't mean you have to travel alone through Asia with just a credit card and a phone.

FREE is a feeling you can access from the heart of a 25-year marriage, long-held friendships, a long career.

FREE is a feeling. Let yourself feel it as much as you can wherever you are.

I just love you to the edge of the universe.

Love,

Love

Somehow, reading these words helped me relax. I don’t have to shave my head, get a divorce and live on a mountain to feel free. I don’t have to quit teaching and go on a solo backpacking trip (which is excellent since I never ever wanted to do that anyway).

Interestingly, right around the time I wrote to Love about FREE, I was looking for a new studio space for Nourishing Movement classes. The sweet studio we’ve been in is closing and it was time to find more space for our growing community.

The week after I wrote my Letter from Love, I taught a demo class in a big, clean open space to a room full of movers who had, well, room to move! As I welcomed them to class, I felt like a plant that had been up-potted. I took a huge breath.

And there it was. I felt it. FREE.

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If you chose One Word for 2024 back in January, where are you with it? Do you remember what it was? Do you think about it? Do you lean on it to guide you? (“No” is a fine answer to all of those questions.) If you’re humming along with your word, excellent! How can you keep that going? If you’ve disconnected from your word, is there a way to plug back in with it?

If you didn’t choose One Word for 2024, it’s not too late! Ask yourself how you’d like to feel for the rest of the year and see what comes up.

Share in the comments about the dance you’re doing with your One Word and whether it’s going the way you thought it would or if, like me, it’s been a little surprising.

Less This: Embodied Intention, Part 2

Embodied Intention in 3 Parts! This is Part 2 of a 3-part series of prompts that invite you to connect to an intention for the new year in your body. You can find Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

Setting an intention for the year (or any span of time) isn’t a unique practice, but many of us skip the step of getting our intention into our bodies. An embodied intention expands from an experience in the mind to one that’s in our cells.

In Part 1, we connected to what went well in the past that we want to bring with us. Even if 2023 was challenging (as most years are), there were some things that are worth continuing.

This week, the invitation is to connect with those things, activities, relationships that aren’t working and that don’t help you. For me, the practice of Less This, of saying No, of letting go requires truth-telling.

Even if it’s in the privacy of my own head, letting something go requires me to acknowledge that it’s not good for me. For example, as much as I love learning, the truth is that constantly having podcasts in my ears and articles in front of my eyes isn’t getting me any closer to feeling calm, peaceful and free.

Check out the things you do regularly, habitually or out of expectation. Are you doing them because they feel good down to your bones? Or are you doing them because it seems easier to keep doing them than to figure out what to do instead? Is that scrolling you do at night something that feels really good? Or is it numbing? Is that friendship one that fills you up or saps you dry? Is that committee you’re on something that feels congruent with what matters to you or do you feel like you have no choice but to do it (spoiler: you always have a choice)?

So what do you want less of? What do you want to let go of from last year?

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Less This.

"Every truth you tell is a kindness even if it makes people uncomfortable. Every truth you don't tell is an unkindness even if it makes people comfortable." -- Liz Gilbert

When it comes to letting go, it often comes down to telling the truth -- to myself and to others. Often on a deep level, we KNOW the habits, relationships, activities that don't serve or support us but are reluctant to let them go. Letting go or stopping something might disappoint someone or feel frightening or vulnerable. This week, think about the things that feel like NO in your body -- and what that NO feels like. Notice in particular when you say "I *have* to do this (in this way)," "they need/expect me to do this (in this way)," or "I cannot stop/let this go." Ask yourself if this activity is relaxing...or numbing, if you are doing something because you love it...or because you always have. Then explore how telling the truth -- to yourself or another -- about what you want to let go is a kindness.

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Perhaps counter intuitively, letting go takes strength. Releasing takes courage. Saying no requires telling the truth. It is a kindness to do it, even if it’s uncomfortable. And letting go makes space for what we really truly want for the new year.

More That: Embodied Intention, Part 1

Embodied Intention in 3 Parts! This is Part 1 of a 3-part series of prompts that invite you to connect to an intention for the new year in your body. Read Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

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As pretty much everybody everywhere on the interwebs and beyond is happy to tell you: January is a good time to set an intention for the new year.

Resolutions, which are goal oriented, don’t tend to stick much past February. But intentions which are more sensation or state-oriented (how do I want to feel?), have a much better chance of moving with you through the year.

The One Word practice is one (but not the only) way of intention setting and you could absolutely do the One Word or any intention practice completely from your head. My experience is that when we take it a step further and make our intentions sensation-centered, they become something we can connect to more easily and regularly.

Intention often begins in the mind but an intention you feel in your bones can act as a guide. We can feel it. I can ask myself when making a decision, for example, When I think about doing this/not doing this, do I feel [insert your word or intention here]? An embodied intention is one that you can tune into no matter what is happening around you.

In the next three weeks, we will consider what you want more of, less of and to add to your days. I’ll invite you to connect with the what of those things but also the sensation of those things. Each week, I’ll offer a writing prompt to get you into the real deal feels of your intention.

To begin: what do you want more of? What do you want to bring with you from last year?

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More That.

Think back over the past year (or more) and remember the times when you felt in the flow and you felt good. What relationships and experiences gave you the feeling of YES?

Write down as many activities, people, images, conversations and habits that filled you up as you can. Set it aside then come back and see if you can remember more.

Pick one or two strong YES memories and write down some details about that experience. In particular, recall how it felt in your body? What physical sensations did you feel when you were in the flow? What does YES feel like, very specifically, in your body? Is it warm or cool? Tingly or expansive? Where do you feel it? In your belly? your heart? your hands? Is it different in different situations or the same?

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“What a year for a new year! Last one left us lying in a mess.” ~ Dan Wilson, What A Year For A New Year

Sometimes at the end of a year, we look back and can only remember when things went sideways and exploded in a dumpster fire. But the truth is, no matter how bad the year was, there were some good things, too. Take some time to re-member, re-embody those good things and bring them along, maybe even more of them, into 2024.

Our One Word 2024

As one year ends and another begins, I feel a little thrill of diving into the One Word process. I just love letting a word find me and then exploring it throughout the year: letting it inform choices and guide me through whatever happens.

One observation I’ve made about my own One Word practice is that often (always?), one word flows into the next. OPEN flowed into RELEASE. CLEAR made space for CALM; which then flowed into TRUST.

What’s more, often our words inform and inspire others. My BFF and I have never had the same word but often – like this year with her LIGHT and my FREE – they support each other.

I’ve talked to some of you about your process of One Word-ing and y’all report similar experiences. Words that morph into the next word, words that circle and eddy and come back around, words that are ignited by someone else.

Putting our words together into a piece of art is a creative project that I always look forward to and this year, after all those conversations and observations, Our One Word 2024 art is about how we flow around and buoy each other by showing up with presence and intention.

Here it is:

Our One Word 2024.

As you explore your One Word, see what other words — ones you’ve used before, that you find in a thesaurus or in your experience or others’ words — flow into, enhance and support your word. Spend some time with the art and see what you notice, what gives you a YES? What opens up a different possibility for your word?

Want to have one of your own? If you go here, you’ll find Our One Word art that you are welcome to print out, add to, color in, share...whatever you like!

Happy 2024! Happy Year of [insert your word]!

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More on the One Word Practice here, here and here.

One Word Challenge

It came to me, as these things often do, in the soft, gray hour before waking. In a half-asleep state, a word popped into my head that woke me right up. “Oof,” I thought, “that may be my One Word for 2024….”

Since 2011, I’ve done the One Word practice every year: choosing one word as my intention, guidepost, and rudder for the next 12 months. Different than a resolution, it is less something to DO and more something to FEEL.

One Word isn’t about accomplishing anything, it’s about how I want to be.

After all these years, I’ve found that choosing a word works best if I think less and feel more. I can get all tight in my eyebrows and try to decide what would be the best word...and that never goes well. When I get all thinky about it, I end up with a word that feels flat and that I mostly forget about by February.

If instead, I relax and get curious about what feelings and experiences I’m craving and pay attention to the words that show up around me, a word finds me that sustains me all year. (Especially if you’re new to it, you can read more about the One Word practice here and here.)

When choosing a word, I tend to find one with a bit of an edge: something that feels challenging, risky, and even maybe a little scary. “Yikes,” I often say to myself, “I’m going to have to do this and that with this word.” I can see where it’s pointing and that direction is often new to me. My One Words often ask me to stretch.

But this year it feels different. There is that Yikes sensation, but it’s less because of what this word is asking me to do and more because what this word is asking me not to do: not to push, not to control, not to hustle, not to be good.

About 10 years ago, I had a similar word, but it was the noun version. That seemed more relatable and approachable somehow that the openness and space of this verb version. This word is asking me to trust.

When the word came to me, I remembered this from author and total badass Liz Gilbert,

“I'm tired of being good. Now all I want is to be free."

She goes on to say,

[Good] is obedience; [Free] is self-trust. [Good] is a bit easier (just follow the rules) but I'm not sure it leads to happiness and creativity. [Free] is harder (sometimes you go against culture and tribe), but I have a feeling it leads to...EVERYTHING.

My reminder to you this December, whether you’ve been choosing One Word for ages or this is your first time, is that your word can be challenging in different ways. It may invite you to show up in edgy, brave, unfamiliar iterations of yourself. It may invite you to show up with fewer expectations, more curiosity, more trust. Your word might invite you to be truer ... and that might be, as it is for me this year, just as unfamiliar and just as challenging.

My One Word for 2024 is FREE. What’s yours?

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SUSAN’S ONE WORDS

2011 – OPEN

2012 – RELEASE

2013 – SPACIOUS

2014 -- WORTHY

2015 -- FREEDOM

2016 – heARTful

2017 – AWAKE

2018 – HEALING

2019 – CLEAR

2020 – CALM

2021 – TRUST

2022 – GRACE

2023 – RESONANCE

2024 – FREE