Resolutions Are So Last Year — This Year, It's All About Intentions |
This holiday season, like many TikTok-pilled wannabe spiritualists, I decided to try out an intention-setting ritual that I randomly came across online. Barring any criticism I might weather for how easily I'm influenced by women who identify themselves as "practitioners of magic," I have to say the experience from start to finish was enlightening.
Ahead of the winter solstice, @thatglasgowwitch instructed her followers (me) to write out 13 intentions on scraps of paper and fold them each so that we couldn't read what was written on the inside. Each night for 12 nights, she said to burn one intention, without reading it, believing that it's already our truth in the new year. "They are offered unseen, with trust," she said. "You burn them gently, knowing that what carries you forward does not need an explanation."
On the final night, we were meant to open the last folded piece of paper, and whichever intention was left was the one for us to "tend," she said. "A touchstone for the year ahead."
Without meaning to, I noticed after I wrote them out that almost all of my intentions were about showing up for other people with more openness and more attentiveness. They were about giving more to the people and places and things in my life that I value and that give me energy, instead of pouring my energy into bad habits (hello, excessive scrolling) that suck the life out of me. My final intention that survived the burnings was a simple one: "I listen with all five senses."
To me, this means really paying attention. Not just nodding along and checking all the boxes of being an active (and sometimes performative) listener, but paying close, heartfelt attention to what's going on around me. Attention to other people when I'm talking to them, attention to pieces of media as I'm consuming them. Reading between the lines of all things, whether it's the fifth paragraph in a breaking news story or the paint stain on someone's t-shirt, and tuning in with all my faculties to understand the subtext. Hearing the inflection in someone's voice that gives away their deeper feeling; smelling the rainstorm in the air before it starts pouring. It's more than just being present, it's being awake.
In the final few nights, my parents had to burn my last remaining intentions for me because I flew back to Boston and left my candle and paper scraps at home with them in San Diego. So much for being attentive. But as the Scottish Instagram witch said, "This is not about doing it perfectly. It's about trust, and showing up to the dark with care." My parents sent me videos of the nightly burns, and lovingly revealed the final intention to me over text, offering their non-judgmental support of a random ritual that may or may not have meant to them what it meant to me. However imperfectly, I will carry that level of care with me as I do all things in 2026. I intend to do it, so it is so. |
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I Tried It: Monthly Maternity Massages |
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In today's featured column, lifestyle director Kelsey Garcia tries to soothe her very pregnant aches through the power of massage. |
I had a fairly easy pregnancy up until my third trimester. I had spent a lot of my second trimester traveling, and it was catching up to me. I was sluggish and my feet had suddenly grown several sizes. My husband had grown tired of the nightly foot rubs (though he likely won't admit it), and it was time to seek professional help. That's when I looked into THE NOW.
THE NOW is a self-described "massage boutique" with over 80 locations across the country. The service menu is simple — with just three different massage types and a handful of enhancements for an added cost — but its aim is to make self-care of this kind more affordable and, therefore, more routine. In Los Angeles, where I live, for example, a 50-minute massage is $130. By committing to a monthly membership, however, I could save $35 . . . and hopefully deal with the issue of the swollen feet. So, seven months pregnant, I gave it a try. Here's how it went. — Kelsey Garcia |
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Before you go, here are a few more stories from PS and beyond that you might enjoy. |
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