I worked with a group of 6 women in an ongoing Mending Broken Hearts Wellbriety Grief group that has been meeting weekly for the past several months. The MBH program is a culturally sensitive approach to healing from grief, loss, and intergenerational trauma, particularly for Native American Communities. I chose A New Year Journal for one of our sessions. Since it was New Year’s and much of the work we had been doing to date included self care activities it seemed very appropriate. All of the women in our group have experienced many levels of trauma and are in recovery. We are all miracle survivors of genocide and it is also carried in our DNA, so this work is imperative to our healing.

We started out our session as we do every week with our talking circle honoring our medicines, ancestors and directions with smudge, silence and then prayer. We then did a breathing exercise with some traditional medicines for grounding. During the introduction it was truly beautiful to witness the women’s reaction to being introduced to the idea of autonomy, to be allowed to O.W.L. (Observe, Witness, Listen), or to offer emotional support or encouragement or to use that Window of Time in whatever way they needed to, as it was theirs. This was such a foreign concept to them and although they all chose to participate, they shared how strange it felt to be given that option.

For the opening I shared the journal I had created with self care activities I planned for each month along with other activities I had foreseen happening throughout the year. I explained that their journals could be added to throughout the year and used as a reminder of their goals. 

All of the women participated, one filled each month with positive affirmations because she said it’s a new practice that’s really been helping her. Another made hers look like a clutch purse so her nosy kids wouldn’t look inside! One young woman shared that she’s never planned her life out longer than a day, so this activity was really different in a good way. She asked to take stickers and some other items with her to keep adding to it.

In closing, I asked each person to breathe in these goals, manifest them, then breathe out any negativity that they may have carried with them over the past year, letting it go with that breath. To breathe in abundance of joy, then breathe out pain and sorrow. I encouraged them to check in with themselves each month and truly take this year to nurture themselves.