Welcome to Present Sense – a weekend curation for Paid Subscribers – with 7 sensory recommendations: something to SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH, BALANCE and ENVISION. Each week also includes an audio guided meditation.
Happy New Year!
I always enter the new year with excitement – a feeling of possibility, a sense of renewal, a readiness to start a “year with no dinks in it!” as
writes. Even if time is a social construct, I welcome the illusion of starting anew.I’m ready to board 2024 with hope, but this time, without the baggage of expectation. It’s a subtle distinction, but expectations tend to lead to disappointment and resentment, while hope leans towards openness and surprise.
I have no idea what this year holds, and I no longer wish to future-guess. I’ve finally let go of defining years as “good” or “bad.” It would have been tempting to label 2023 as a “hard year”: one filled with grief, failure and disappointment. But it was also a year of deep connections, joyful adventures, and creative awakenings.
Our mind tends to focus on the peak moments: the most extreme times of hardship or joy. But most of our days, year, life is made of the in-between: the subtle connections, the mundane frustrations, and the small delights.
If I have any expectation for 2024 is that it will include a nuanced range of life. I enter it with intention, imagination and hope –– but without resolution, expectation, nor plan. If past years have taught me anything, it is how little control we have on life. The best I can do is show up with clarity, work with patience, and share honestly. The rest – the result, the outcome, the reward – is a roll of the dice.
For our first meditation of the year, I’m guiding us through a practice of intention without expectation. To listen to the meditation, play the audio below “BALANCE” (a couple paid subscribers didn’t know this).
I’ve also included my weekly sensory recommendations –– SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH, BALANCE and ENVISION –– inspired by the unique holiday items I recently received.
In Joy,
Sabrina
PS: for a deeper dive on the illusion of time, you might enjoy this piece:
