Do you have any rituals for welcoming in the new year? For my mom, it was eating gefilte fish (for prosperity) & watching Guy Lombardo. Here a few others from around the globe:

• Eating 12 Grapes of Luck (Spain): In Spain, at midnight, each chime of the clock is accompanied by swallowing a grape for good luck & prosperity throughout the coming year.
• Jumping Over Waves (Brazil): Brazilians welcome the new year by lining up on the beach, jumping seven waves back-to-back at midnight. Each wave supposedly washes away a different hardship or negative energy.
• Wearing Colored Underwear (Italy & Latin America): In some countries, your underwear color on New Year's Eve dictates your year's fortunes. Red signifies passion and love, yellow for wealth and prosperity, green for health and harmony, and white for peace and purity.

I don’t really have a ritual for midnight, unless you count trying to stay awake till midnight while watching Andy Cohen & Anderson Cooper from Times Square. But I do have a 2-minute ritual that I practice whenever I’m in a time of transition: Release & Gather.

Release & Gather is a yoga-inspired movement intended to move energy around. Combined with the breath, this pose encourages us to clear out stagnant or negative energy & invite in something bright & new. Want to try it with me?

This New Year’s Eve, practice this ritual or one of your own. Plant the seeds of positive energy in your heart to carry forward into 2024. Me? I think I’ve got a rainbow-colored pair of panties to cover all my bases for good fortune ahead!

Enjoying this blog? Sign up for the FREE Midlife Yoga & Wellness newsletter, your weekly source for insights, events & practical tips for healthy aging.