Why January Is Not the Right Time To Review Your Year and Set Your Goals

By Gabriella Guglielminotti Trivel

We are in the month of goal setting and and everyone seems willing to change everything in their lives. I wonder though, is it the right time?

I am a woman and I have been practicing menstrual awareness for over ten years in a conscious way. Before that, I was tracking my cycle out of my own intuition, therefore I was unconsciously cycle aware.  As such, I know that I go through four distinctive ‘inner seasons’ every month and at the end of every cycle I carry out a review of how my month has been.  

Why do I do that? Because I learn lessons every month and I want to start my next cycle knowing where I am standing and where I want to go. Hence, when January comes, I don’t feel the need to go through my whole year again as I do it regularly. Moreover, I follow the outer seasons, as I know that they impact my life big time living in the Northern hemisphere, so I know that the beginning of January it is not the right time for reviewing.

How do I know?  

Well, winter has only just started. The winter solstice happened on 21st December, therefore my body and consciousness is only starting slowing down to go into ‘hibernation’ so to speak. I am just getting in contact with my soul and exploring my inner landscape, so how can I be prepared to have clarity to set my next year’s goals?  I will be much better prepared to do that at the end of February or mid March when nature starts waking up and my body too, as it follows the natural seasonal rhythm.  

An alternative to reviewing my year in spring is doing it in autumn, at the end of November, beginning of December when my body and consciousness are naturally slowing down and reviewing things anyway.  

The secret to have a happily flowing life is to follow nature, rather than setting some unnatural planning that clashes with it.  I went into more details about the energy of autumn in my blog ‘Autumn is a feminine season’ and I would like to explore now a bit more the nature of winter.

Winter energy is a cooling energy spiralling downwards, therefore very apt for going in and checking in.  When I walk in a wood in winter, I can easily see all the trees and what is on the ground where normally there is plenty of foliage during the other seasons, likewise during winter it is time to listen attentively to my soul and her needs.

To be able to hear these messages, I have to become silent and retreat from outer activities, just as nature does. It is not a good time for reviewing, because to be able to get my lessons, I need to first hear the messages from the invisible world to be able to wake up in spring and have clarity. What is the point to set goals just for the sake of it and then not follow through because they are not soul driven?  It is an activity that can destroy our enthusiasm and won’t help us understand ourselves and what we really want, so why to do it?

As a woman I work with my inner cycles every month of the year and I review them accordingly, so I always know where I am standing and what my body and my psyche want to do. I simply follow nature and go in ‘hibernation’ in winter to be able to feel renewed in spring and use my natural energy, fuelling my enthusiasm to get what I want in life.  

My female cycle and Nature are my best friends. What are yours?

Gabriella Guglielminotti Trivel  was born in Italy and studied foreign languages at the University of Turin, She is also qualified as a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

She is an author, speaker, visionary and coach who educates women about their female cycle and how the feminine consciousness operates to help them gain confidence, authority and fulfilment from their body and in life.

For more information visit Flying Inspiration