Lisa cooper Ellison
“Darkness invites us to slow down, turn inward, and reflect on what’s gone well while we prepare the seeds for what we’d like to grow in the coming year.”

Although I know nothing about numerology apparently 2025 also marks the close of a nine-year cycle, bringing together themes of completion, letting go, spiritual growth, and transformation.

In your life Some chapters have ended through loss or separation.

We’re intentionally wrapping up others by shedding what’s no longer needed so we can prepare for 2026 when a new chapter begins.

Sunday is the winter solstice
It’s a great time to honor what’s coming to a close.

Why not take small pockets of screen-free, distraction-free time this week.

As you sit, walk, or move in stillness (or boredom), let insights surface without forcing them into being.

Jot down what comes to you.

Reflect on these questions:

• What was life like in 2017? That’s the 9 year phase I talked about earlier. If you don’t want to use 9 years why not pick 2019 – pre pandemic.

• What did you want to accomplish or change?

• How have you grown in those areas?

• What from this chapter of your life has come to completion?

• How has that completion come about?

• What lessons have you learned?

• What achievements do you want to celebrate?

• What feels clearer now?

Once you’ve had time to look back, turn your attention to the present:

• What areas of your life seem to need attention or growth? Creativity? Family? Finances? Physical health? Something else?

• What would you like to begin or accomplish between now and the spring equinox on March 20, 2026? This may or may not be related to any 2025 goals

• Who will you need to be to bring these intentions to life?

• Who will you need to bring on board for this to happen?

• What will you need to do to make that happen?

• How committed are you to this one thing?

• What might possibly interfere with accomplishing this.

You can and should use these types of questions when attempting to measure anything in terms of growth.
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Encapsulate and evaluate your year

What better way to evaluate your growth than by encapsulating your year.

By that I mean listing all the things that happened to you or that you did.

What good came from each even if at the time it didn’t seem so good.

Then assessing each one to see

- Perhaps what was different about this event

– what you learned,

- what you could do differently if it happened again and

- what you thought was a good strategy.

Ultimately single out ONE particular point that made the most impact in your life.

Here’s a glimpse of my year. It’s just the highlights to show you how the universe works and how you can benefit from the review :
⁃ i finished my January 6 day race with at least 200 miles. What was different and what I learned was the same: I went in without out any goal other than to get 5 hours of sleep every 24 hours. There was little stress and yet I ended up with the same number of miles I get when I endure all the stress
⁃ I started the hotline. Discussing that will take an entire call.
⁃ I became an end of life doula. There’s so much I can say about that but surprisingly the best that came from that was amazing new and rich friendships
⁃ I began to volunteer at a home for the dying. Again I learned much more than taking care of people. I discovered that I need to take care of myself more and not get spun up in an organization where I have no direct impact. Self care is key
⁃ I finished vol state despite the trials and tribulations. More in a minute
⁃ I broke my clavicle. I learned that it’s ok to ask for help and people want to help. I learned that I can do things (like using my left arm) even without extensive preparation.
⁃ I had to have an ablation (burning) of a large part of my esophagus. I learned that swallowing and digesting things is an area i need to work on. Isn’t interesting how physical symptoms can represent so much of what we have to work on with our inner selves?

Here is the single most powerful quote of my year because of what it represents:

“The amazing thing is how powerful one on phone call can be for all of us!”
Dr Rob Gilbert

Dr Gilbert changed my life completely during Vol State. He was always there. He always brought you guys my progress and he never once lectured me. He was the epitome of support. He got me to the rock, one phone call at a time. It’s only fitting that the book I’m writing about this race be dedicated to him.

Who can you call to make a powerful impact on that person? Who can you be there for so they know they are not alone? I can personally tell you that having at least one person you can reach makes all the difference in the world.

Why not begin your 2025 review.

A conditioned response is a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that has been paired with an eliciting stimulus.

So what you’re probably asking? Well the “what” is that there may be things happening in your life that you’re not happy with. These may be conditioned responses and with a fair amount of effort – sometimes a lot of effort – you may be able to reverse them.

Here’s some examples in my life. The funniest one is that if I pick up a book to read in the morning and start to read, I will begin to yawn. This happens without fail. Maybe you’re thinking it’s becaue I’m tired in the morning. But that’s not it. I’ve been up and working at my morning routine long before I pick up a book. It’s that someone a few a years ago my brain associated yawning with a book. I can read online a nothing happens.

This is the breakdown:
There’s pairing. I started reading a book and I yawned at the same time.

Then there’s association. My brain associated a yawn with opening a book.

The conditioned response develops so that when my brain sees me open a book it thinks it’s time to yawn

Then when I’m walking on a certain route – one where i know the porta potties are as soon as I get to a certain point on that route, my bladder begins to send messages to my brain that “it has to go”. When I’m on another route – leaving under the exact same conditions like how much I drink and when I pee at home, I’m fine at the same distance because the porta potty on that route is not for another mile. It took me a while to realize this one but when I found that I was feeling fine all the way until about 1/2 mile from the potty and all of a sudden I really had to go.
So what does this have to do with routines?

I have been having chronic daily headaches for the past 5-6 weeks and I have associated most of it with my daily morning routine. There’s more to it though because it’s most often there when I wake up.
But i decided to change my morning routine and see what happened. It’s been less than a week so I can’t really tell about the effect on my headaches except that so far they have not occurred when I wake up. But what I have noticed is that I feel a sense of freedom and excitement now that I’ve changed up that routine. I do parts of it in the evening or throughout the day so I haven’t eliminated anything. I’ve just reordered my routine.
Take a look at your days and see if there are things you might be doing “just because”. You started doing them sometime but maybe they have become stagnant. It’s important for the things we do to be stimulating and exciting so analyze your activities and see if there’s any shaking up you can do. And maybe you’ll find some conditioned responses that you weren’t aware of either.