This episode of the Spiritual Homegirl podcast focuses on a meditation for hope and positivity as we embark on the new year, 2025. Host Maria emphasizes the importance of nurturing our own happiness and well-being instead of constantly fighting against external adversities. She encourages listeners to plant a meaningful word in their hearts that represents their intentions for the year ahead, allowing it to grow and flourish. Throughout the episode, Maria reassures listeners that it's okay if the new year doesn't start perfectly; what matters is the commitment to cultivating personal growth and resilience. Ultimately, this meditation serves as a gentle reminder that we are deserving of joy and that every day is an opportunity to reconnect with our inner strength and purpose.

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• Nick Fresh

Hey, y'all.

For those who don't know what Gregorian means, please look it up. It's the word, Greg. G R E G O R I A N as in November. And I wanted to do a meditation for today.

I was going to do this Christmas, but based on the people I've been speaking to, it looks like New Year's is a bit more, let me not say impactful, but it's a holiday where it's symbolic in a way that Christmas is not.

Meaning that Christmas does not necessarily symbolize the ending, a new beginning for the folks that I pulled about whether I should have done this on Christmas or New Year's. And it looks like a lot of folks do follow in some way, shape or form that Gregorian cycle, which is January 1st to December 31st.

So today's episode is going to be about just a meditation, a prayer for hope and positivity. This year, as much as we talk about letting go, everybody can't go. Let's cut them off. You know, this don't serve me, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I get it, right? Y'all know I'm. I'm a person who is all about do what you have to do to protect yourself.

Let go of people that are mistreating you, making sure that you're constantly evaluating who's around you, assessing your situations accordingly, defending yourself, being, being assertive.

You know, I'm all for that, but I want to do something a little different because once we do that, we don't want to stay in the energy of constantly feeling like we're having to fight against something. Nothing wrong with being a warrior, right?

But in terms of, you know, wanting to bring positivity to you, sometimes we have to direct our fight to ourselves. And when I say ourselves, as I'm saying, we don't always have to have an enemy to fight against.

It's about making sure that we fight for ourselves in the sense of just making sure that we stay on top of our happiness and of being able to get joy. So we're taking ourselves out of the third party fighting energy. We're not always going against an adversary here. Here.

Our fight is going to be towards making sure that we have a healthy, joyous, successful 365 day cycle. The thing I also want to talk about too is making sure that we don't set the tone.

And I know people say this and it's going to probably be contrarian, and I don't mean to be contrarian in terms of. And honestly, it's not even contrarian in the sense of me wanting to troll or be petty, but it's also a more practical side of looking at things.

I know people say sometimes, you know, January 1st, you set the tone for your year on this day. Not always. Not always. And sometimes everybody doesn't have a wonderful January 1st.

Sometimes it's rough, sometimes it's, it's, you need to start over. You know, sometimes you might be hitting January 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th or 7th.

So what I'm saying in a situation is, would it be nice to set the tone of a 365 day cycle on today? Absolutely. But does it mean your year is going to be trash because this first day doesn't go the way you want it to? No. And that's what I'm saying.

I'm saying that as your homegirl who loves you and want to see you win. This is like a garden. We're growing seeds or we're about to plant seeds into the ground. Not to mention we might still be on a new moon cycle.

Let me see, let me see what's going on here. Because if we are, that's even better. But this is all seeds.

All our thoughts, all of our feelings, our desires, you know, those are seeds in our faith and our works. We water them that way. And sometimes some plants may be more prosperous than others.

I mean, I've told y'all the story, or maybe not about the carrots that I thought I grew. And I let months and months and months go by and I assumed my carrots weren't growing because they weren't poking out of the ground.

When actuality, all I had to do was just scoop a little bit of the dirt around it and I could have seen that I had eight foot or not eight foot, excuse me, eight inch long carrots that were in the ground for eight months, eight, nine months that I thought were failures because they weren't popping up. So that's what I mean when I say, you know, you think you might set the tone incorrectly.

But in actuality, those seeds will actually end up growing to something fruitful. And if something doesn't grow, then maybe that just wasn't the seed that was meant to grow this year. And that's okay.

As I said in one of My posts on Instagram, you know, I will claim whatever I want, but only by the grace of God do I receive it. And I may not always get what I want, but God will always give me what I need.

And for those who are kind of stuck in that needs versus want thing, you know, just if you are a person who does believe in God in, in that type of blessing, you know, at the end of the day, we will want when we want, but when we get what we need and it's not what we want, we can always use that to our advantage as well, because that has been what was given to us. If you choose to look at it that way, some people will still be upset and still be up, you know, and that's fine.

But for me, I'd rather just try my best to transmute the energies into something that can be productive for me, even if it's something that I may not understand or it may be something that has been uncomfortable, honestly. So let's see here. I'm just trying to check the moon real quick today. We're in a waxing Crescent, so it's 4% full at the time of this recording. So.

So, yeah, let's just get right into it.

I, like I said, just wanted to bring some positivity today for those who are just needing a way to recenter or set the tone for their energy for this new cycle. Not saying you set the tone through habits and human stuff, but just in terms of how you're feeling about today, that's the type of tone we will set.

Today you may feel differently tomorrow you may feel differently next week, that is completely fine.

But for those who are just needing just a little bit of, a little bit of to kind of get their cycle started, then that is what this episode is going to continue to be about. And also people that are still needing to feel a little worthy.

Some people just may need a quick little loving kick in the pants and say, oh, you're right, I am deserving of something better. And then some people don't need it at all. They're just like, hey, let's go, let's do this.

And then some people are just like, ah, I may not feel it now in terms of me doing it, but maybe I'll feel this way come February 1st, or for those who are like an Aries season, an airy season like myself, maybe around Easter time, they'll start feeling like, oh, there's a rebirth on the way. So either way it goes, we're going to do a meditation or a prayer, whatever you want to do.

If you want to pray this to your higher power, whichever you believe in, feel free to just put your.

Your higher power, you know, while you're talking to them, just calling, invoking that name so that you can connect to the, you know, your inner source, to the outer source, your inner God to your outer God, and because you'll have a little bit of guidance for those who believe. So, you know, just connecting. But before we get into that meditation, y'all know the drill, okay?

Y'all know I'm a certified meditation teacher, so let's get comfortable, let's get seated. Or, you know, if you want to lie down, that's fine. Close your eyes once you feel safe to do so.

Now, for those who are driving and listening, obviously we don't want you to be distracted, so feel free to come back to this once you're not driving. If you are walking, you can absolutely do a walking meditation. I have had people tell me that they listen to my podcast on walks.

So if you're doing that, you can absolutely do a walking meditation. Just don't close your eyes and, you know, just pay attention to the nature around you. I love walking meditations, honestly.

It allows you to be present in the moment with nature. Just don't get lost on where you're going. Okay?

So for those who are not walking, close your eyes once you feel safe to do so, once you get comfortable, and let's take a deep breath together. Okay? Let's inhale for four through our nose. Let's hold for four. Three, two, one. Exhale for six. Two, three, four, five, six.

Let's do that two more times. Inhale through your nose. Two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Exhale through the mouth. Three, four, five, six. Let's do it one more time.

Inhale through your nose. 3, 4. Hold, 2, 3, 4. Exhale through the mouth. 3, 4, 5, 6. Continue that breathing pattern. Okay, inhale through your nose.

And as you continue breathing, let's picture a warm, golden light above your head. This light could represent hope, positivity, joy, or even the love of God.

And as you continue to breathe, inhaling for four, holding for four, exhaling through six.

As you continue to breathe, imagine it slowly washing over you from the top of your crown, moving down to your shoulders, your chest, your arms, your legs, all the way down to the soles of your feet. And as you continue to breathe, this light and this love is filling you with strength, peace and positivity for this next cycle ahead.

And it's telling you softly, you are resilient, you are worthy, you are capable, and you are loved. And as you continue to sit in this light, this divine light, I want you to think of one word that will represent what you want to focus on this year.

Maybe it's freedom, maybe it's growth, maybe it's balance, maybe it's family. Whatever it is, or success. Let that word settle in your heart. Feel that word and how it inspires you. And continue to breathe.

Let that word settle in your heart. And when you're ready, imagine yourself planting that word in rich, fertile soil.

Plant the word deep down in the earth and watch this word grow into something beautiful. It could be a flower, it could be a tree, it could be whatever that comes to mind for you. This will be your 365 day cycle to grow.

Continue to breathe as you see that word nurtured in the spirit and the faith in your works of what you want that word to be for you. And watch it grow from a seedling to a tiny plant, to a medium plant, to a large plant.

Whether it's a tree, a plant, a flower, whatever you want to be, just watch the cycle of how abundant it will grow for you.

And as you watch it grow, connect your heart to that vision and smile to yourself and know that it is because of your connection to yourself and to your source energy and your ability to want more for yourself and be able to put the work in and be undeterred by any external force, person, entity, spirit, whatever it is. You're going to push through that and you're going to make that manifest for your life with the help of your source. How good does that feel?

Sit with that feeling in your spirit and smile to yourself. The energy of how we want things to be starts here. There may be days where things are not so perfect and not so joyous.

We won't worry about that because we remember that at the end of the day we've planted something beautiful into the ground and we are worthy and deserving to watch that grow for us.

And while you sit in that energy, and before I wrap up, I still want to remind you, as your homegirl who loves you and wants to see you win that hope or whatever that word is that you put in the ground, it's not about ignoring the challenges of life. It's about embracing the fluidities of life and trusting that you have the tools to navigate them.

And if you don't, you will acquire the tools to navigate. You are so much stronger than you know. And as I said before, you are deeply deserving of the blessings that will be coming your way.

And as you move through this week and through this month and through these next 364 days now, continue to keep your vision of growth alive. Remember the word that you planted in the ground. And if you need to nurture it with the word of other spiritual texts, please, by all means, do so.

Water it with patience, grace, and kindness to yourself. And remember, you're never alone. We are all in this together.

Even though we all have our own individual assignments and we might have different words that we put in the soil, we are going to be in this together, myself included, every step of the way. Okay? So as you continue to breathe, feel free to feel the room around you. Wiggle your toes, and when you are ready, you can come back to the room.

Y'all better save me some y'all next year, okay? I need. I need all the greens, all the black eyed peas. I hope your house was clean. If not, no judgment.

Just, you know, not today, but tomorrow, if you know the African American tradition, you know, we don't do it on. We don't do it on January 1st, okay?

So if you need to get some cleaning and stuff like that, and you feel a little out of the way, remember what I said about the meditation, okay? Some of y'all went to this new cycle when your house is not clean, didn't cook nothing. Y'all probably feeling anxiety and thrown off again.

Homegirl loves you. Let that go, okay? Let it go. These are cultural traditions. Absolutely. Some people call it superstition.

Some people call it manifestation, Ancestral tools. Whatever it is, if you did not prepare for that today, don't beat yourself up about it.

Go back to the meditation and run this meditation back as many times as you need to.

If you know somebody that's feeling away because they didn't start January 1st, quote unquote, with their house, in order, no judgment, send the meditation to them and tell them just to Relax, okay? God does not want us to fail. I truly am a champion of that. God does not want us to fail.

And if you did not make the proper, quote, unquote, proper preparation because of whatever you were going through, had to work, might have been a little depressed, might have been unmotivated, whatever it is, too tired, didn't have any money for cleaning tools or for food, we're not going to judge you here, okay? This is the part where we listen and we don't judge, right? That's the trend now, right? This is a prime example of we listen and don't judge.

If January 1st did not start off energetically right for you. If you end up hearing this meditation after January 1st, whatever day you hear this meditation, get to it. Don't wallow in what the day was before.

Don't even wallow in how crappy the day was before you heard it. Just make sure you pick your word, you stick it in the soil, and you remember you have some nurturing to do, okay?

All days are not going to be good ones. We know that we're not manifesting negativity. That's just the reality of life.

But it's how we handle it, how we choose to handle it, how we choose to grow, what word we choose, how we choose to nurture that word, how we choose to nurture ourselves that makes the difference. So I just want to put that on you all spirit today.

If you have not signed up for my email list, don't forget to click the second link in my show notes. And also, if you have not completed the podcast listener survey, click the first link in my show notes. I'm a spiritual homegirl everywhere.

You can find anybody or anything. Spiritual homegirl everywhere. So tap in with your girl if you love these types of episodes. Please, please, please, by all means, leave a review.

And speaking of loving what I do, y'all know I can't do any podcast episode without thanking you all for listening. So thank you for listening. Boo.

You can leave a comment under any of my posts, whatever it is. Make sure I see the request because I love doing meditations.

I think they're fun and I think they're an awesome way that we can self care for ourselves whether you have a practice or not. It's a way that we could try to rewire our thinking in some instances and also create healthy habits as well when it comes to self care.

So with that being said, I'll catch y'all next episode. This has been another episode of the Spiritual Homegirl podcast. My name is Maria, your spiritual homegirl.

And remember, boo, friends, trust the journey, trust yourself, and whatever you do, do it with love. And that includes setting the tone. And before I get out of here, I have to shout out my sponsor.

Of course, my sponsor for the Spiritual Homegirl podcast is Nick Fresh. Nick Fresh is amazing. He is a DJ and he is super cool.

He is a dj, musician, music historian behind the Looseness radio show and music designed to move your behind. Tuesdays at 10pm on tick tock. You can find him on Tick Tock at username Nick Fresh Alive.

So shout out to our sponsor and again, I'll catch y'all next episode. Okay? Love y'all. Peace.