It’s the third year in a row now that I am setting aside time to complete my year. I see it as a beautiful ritual that supports me so I can start the New Year mentally strong. I will share some of the things I personally learned and give you a couple of powerful questions to ask yourself so that you also can achieve completion in 2018.

The most important thing I learned last year was that I needed to clean up my emotional and physical baggage if I wanted to feel healthier and lighter.

The reason we often are stuck is that we’re holding on to unresolved arguments, resentments, postponements, incomplete relationships or “stuff” lying around in our physical space.

“Stuckness” is always caused by “incompletions.”

The best way to close your year is to take a look at your incompletions and to aim for completion wherever you feel stuck. Then work on celebrating yourself and your accomplishments.

At the end of the year I choose a place that I find inspiring, and I go through what I don’t want to bring with me into the New Year.

Incompletions are all the things that you struggle with to let go of or make a decision about. It’s everything, that holds you back from really expanding and shining.

I also work to celebrate myself by making a list of ten things I did to make sure there was movement in my life.

Very often we look back and focus on what wasn’t good enough in our lives. We pay more attention to the deficiencies than to the great things we have accomplished. 

When we start focusing on the good things in our lives, it’s easier to see how we can create more of it.

Ten things I did to make sure there was movement in my personal and professional life during 2018:

1. I often used alternative medicine. I suffered from all different kind of physical symptoms this year. Growing up in a surrounding that was skeptical toward alternative medicine, I have always turned to a classical doctor for help. This year, alternative medicine didn’t just save me from having surgery, but also helped me in other difficult health situations.

2. I stopped being overly dependent on the opinions of others when it comes to my new career path. In 2017, I still listened a lot to other people’s opinions about how I should lead my workshops and how I shall work as a Life Coach. This year, I gained more trust in my intuition – and myself – which lead to my best year so far in my new business.

3. Getting a Shakti mat https://shaktimat.de/# to support relaxation before going to sleep. I was interviewed by a company, which sells those acupressure mats in Germany, and I started to use the mat myself. I finally created a bedtime routine!

4. Created my own retreat by going by myself to Thailand for two weeks. After a winter with much illness, I decided that I needed to go for a retreat. Usually, the retreats have a schedule that started in the early morning, which I didn’t have the strength for this time. I found a place on the island Koh Phangan where I could combine reading books in the hammock and joining workshops whenever I felt like it.

5. Stopped eating products with lactose. This was a revelation! So many years of problems with my intestines, and I had no idea that lactose was part of the problems.

6. Went to a festival where I joined the workshop “Wild Women Dance” and learned that dancing always leads me back to my creativity. I need movement – and preferably free and wild movement – to access my inner powerful core.

7. Read the book “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brené Brown, which helped me work with my perfectionism. I used to obsessively care for every detail while working on my website or preparing a party. This year, I went from a stressed out perfectionist to a bit more relaxed “better done than perfect” attitude.

8. Letting go of my wish for a second child. This has been a long process and this year when I turned 45, I was ready. I gathered a group of friends who helped me complete this process and peacefully let go of my wish and then celebrate a new phase of my life.

9. Better real than liked by everyone. I finished my third year as a student at the IGG Institute in Berlin, a Gestalt Therapy School. Far too many times during my first two years, I let fear of not being liked interrupt an opportunity for deeper connection with my peers and teachers. I was left exhausted. This year, I’ve learned to trust my true self and let almost every side of me be seen and expressed.

10. Believed in miracles. One of my biggest challenges this year was to get my daughter into a bilingual school where all her friends were going to go to. We were on the waiting list until three days before the school started when we finally got a spot!

Create Your Own List 

What can you celebrate yourself for this year? What made you feel there was movement in your life? Write a list and discover how you have grown personally and professionally.

The Most Important Thing I learned this Year 

It’s also important to look at what did not work well for you during the year, but then it’s equally crucial that you focus on what you can learn from it. This answer will always move you forward.

This year I struggled to choose the most important thing I learned because I learned so much! It has been one of my most challenging years in a long time and through all the breakdowns I manage to go through, I was gifted with many beautiful insights. The most important one is:

I can set healthy boundaries and still be a loving person.

Lately, I’ve seen that in most situations when I don’t feel good, it’s about me not setting clear boundaries. Therefore I worked a lot on setting healthy boundaries this year.

If you – like me – have grown up with the belief that “it’s better to agree so that you avoid conflict”, then you understand how much work it takes to create a new and healthier belief.

It has by far been one of the most challenging issues I’ve worked on since I started to work on my personal development, but also the most rewarding.

My life with healthy boundaries feels much lighter, and I am full of gratitude toward myself for the courage to say no to what drains me and yes to what lifts me up.

Read more about how to set healthy boundaries here: https://katarina-stoltz.com/blog/set-boundaries-take-control-life/

Here is a list of questions to work on so that you can close your year. You can do it alone or why not do it with a friend?

Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself to Achieve Completion

What was your hardest challenge? What did you learn from it?

What did you regret doing/ not doing? What did you learn from it?

Which activities/situations drained you?

Which was your best moment?

What were you most proud of?

Which activities made you feel really alive?

What else is there that needs completion?

What was the most important thing you learned during 2018?

Moving Forward

Answering those questions will enable you to make space in your life for new creations in 2019. As long as we are stuck in old habits that don’t serve us any longer, or are stuck in resentments or regrets, we don’t move forward.

“The secret of change consists in concentrating one’s energy to create the new, and not to fight against the old” – Dan Millman

When you wish to get support so you can work on completing your past year and creating 2019, I offer one-on-one coaching sessions either at my practice in Berlin or over Skype. Schedule a free of charge consultation to see how we could work together: https://calendly.com/katarinastoltz

Wishing you much joy with completing your year and I’m looking forward to sharing many more insights and inspiring questions with you during 2019!

I have taken a couple of wrong decisions in my private life the past few weeks. I haven’t been inspired neither excited to write articles or lead workshops. There are phases in our lives when there is no flow and that’s okay. Nothing is wrong. It’s simply just life trying to teach us something. I want to share what I’ve learned recently about what helps me to find my way back to creativity.

My promise to myself.

I promised myself three years ago to take part in one retreat a year. I was on Crete two years in a row for a “Light and shadow retreat” and a “Soul retreat”. This year I didn’t want to follow a specific program, this year my strongest wish was to follow my own rhythm and take part in workshops when I feel like it and partly be in silence.

Right now in Thailand.

After a couple of days of just rest, no plans and chilling out on my self-created retreat in Thailand, I noticed how joyful, inspired I feel and how much kindness I’m showing myself.

I wasn’t sure where my inspiration had gone to lately, maybe it just had left me in peace for a while. Now I see it was not only the acceptance of my current state of being that brought me inspiration back, it was also my CURIOSITY, my constant curiosity on people and the world around me.

I realized that my curiosity is my STABILITY, my pillar to lean on and my solid foundation while inspiration and excitement come and go.

My curiosity led me to go dancing.

Yesterday I was ready to take part in the first workshop here on Koh Phangang. My curiosity led me to a “Sacred tantric dance” gathering with women. I have never taken part in a workshop like that before. Still it felt totally natural.

When we started to share our ideal lives, I saw how much I had in common with all those women, women I had never met before. I felt totally PRESENT and AWAKE even though I hadn’t slept much the night before.

We were asked to share the two most present feelings we experienced while fantasizing about living our ideal lives. Mine were: ALIVE and AUTHENTIC.

The teacher showed us a couple of techniques which we can use in order to bring forth these feelings. One of them was to dancing the feelings in the middle of a circle of women while they scream out the qualities they see in us.

FREEDOM and ALIVENESS they screamed to me.

At the end of the workshop each of us completed a meditation dance and received feedback from the other women.

The teacher told me: “What I appreciated in you was how you dared to express your AUTHENTICITY.”

I was moved to tears. So many years I’ve spent on learning not to push, pretend or perform. I’ve desired to discover my true self and bring her back to life, and here I stood in my light of vulnerability, gentleness and truth, fully expressing my authentic self.

It can’t get much better than this.

What is your most desired self-expression?

Authenticity is the way back to creativity.

I’m sitting on the terrace of my bungalow, watching the rain become one with the sea. And I know that this is one of these very important days I will always come back to, to reminding myself of how I want to feel, being alive and authentic.

It’s of course easier to open up to your desired feelings in Thailand on a retreat, but when we become aware of HOW we want to feel, and we remind ourselves which our most desired self-expressions are, I believe that the journey to our ideal life will be much shorter than if we would live without this awareness.

Do whatever you need to do to open up to these feelings, go for a retreat, take a break from your everyday life routine or whatever works for you, but do it, it’s so much worth it, I promise!

When you feel a lack of inspiration, ask yourself:

What are you REALLY interested in?

When you feel tired, unmotivated or restless, ask yourself:

Which step do I need to take to access my most desired feelings?

Book tip:

I highly recommend the book: BIG MAGIC by Elisabeth Gilbert.

Coaching offer:

If you’re stuck and don’t know how to get back to your creativity and you are ready to open up to your ideal life, check out my coaching packages and book a free consultation: https://katarina-stoltz.com.

Love, 

A year ago I wrote my first blog article. Since then I have kept on writing articles regularly. It has supported me to stay committed toward myself, and to live what I preach. Writing has also become a way for me to acknowledge my learnings. Today I wish to share and acknowledge my most important learnings this year, and I hope I will inspire you to make a similar list.

Ten things I did to make sure there was movement in my personal and professional life 2017:

1. Got rid of at least ten boxes with old school books, notes, and other stuff, which I don’t need anymore, from the past. Since I started experiencing the power of completing things, I regularly clean up in different areas of my life. This year it was time for the boxes in my parents’ basement.

2. Started to express my emotions in a more appropriate way. This resulted in better skin (I used to have acne), sleeping better, more energy and feeling much more balanced.

3. Some more cleaning up to make space for the new. I regularly went to a second hand store to sell clothes, that I did not wear anymore, and some I gave away. I started to shop less and prioritize quality to quantity. The feeling of lightness amazes me, when I don’t have to think of all this clutter anymore!

4. Stepped way out of my comfort zone and started to lead workshops, and I led 5 workshops in personal development during 2017!

5. Spent a lot of time searching for the right coaching practice and found one, which I share with other professionals. I started to work as a Life Coach and have supported over 100 women to live a fulfilled life.

6. Got myself a proper alarm clock and started using it instead of my I-phone. Now I leave my phone in the kitchen when I go to sleep and instead of checking emails first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening, I focus on starting and ending my days in a much more conscious way.

7. Managed to communicate with more compassion and less reaction and defense. I learned how much we influence others with the way we communicate. The way I used to communicate was a bit aggressive and defensive. Today I notice how much easier it is to reach someone with a more understanding and compassionate language.

8. Read the book “Body process” by James I. Kepner and learned a lot about the relationship between our bodies and our mental and emotional health.

9. Went for a retreat and learned about my soul’s purpose and other karmic stuff. Went through a very challenging ritual, and since then my gratefulness towards life has been present every day.

10. Started seeing every single discomfort as an opportunity for learning.  I’m becoming better at handling situations and people, who are triggering me, with looking at what I can learn from it or them and also at what still needs healing. This has had the effect that I’m almost not going into conflicts anymore.

My most important learning 2016 was: Slow down, you move too fast. My most important learning 2017 is:

Get rid of emotional and physical baggage and you feel healthier and lighter. 

What can you acknowledge yourself for this year? Write a list and discover how you have grown personally and professionally.

When we are able to acknowledge ourselves we take a BIG STEP forward to a life that feels more joyful and fulfilling.

Wishing you all a grateful ending of 2017!