The last Full Moon of 2025 - Celebrate Gifts & Shifts

Hello Moonchild :)

We are on the final Full Moon of the Year (4th December) and it's a Super Moon as well. A conducive time to look back at 2025.

If you were following my guidance for the November Full Moon, you may already have changed gears, slowed down and entered reflection territory. If not, it is fine too, you have the rest of the month and can begin now.

Bringing back the guidance from November to set the tone...read this very slowly as you stay aware of your breath:

From this moment on, tell yourself to stop rushing. Start the slowing down journey in small ways. Take time off from work, take time to rest, nourish yourself through nature, food, movement and rituals that you connect with. Visit places that raise your prana. Journal. Meet, call people who touched your life. Own and express your emotions in safe spaces. Do one or more of these things everyday.

I would like to touch upon one of the Niyamas* from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Santosa, as the theme for this last Moon of the year. Santosa translates as contentment. It is the opposite of a feeling of lack. A deep recognition and celebration of all that is. It is a state of mind that can be cultivated. It gives an experience of fullness and shifts one to a frequency of abundance.

This Moon is about looking back and honouring all that 2025 was. The GIFTS and SHIFTS, both internal and external. Celebrate them. Allow the recognition and experiences to fill you up and ground you. Know that this is not something you will do and forget. You are cultivating a new way of being that can set the tone for the coming year.

What can you do as a ritual?

Set aside about an hour and create a sacred space with flowers, incense and anything else that holds meaning for you. Keep your journal and pen ready. Light a ghee lamp (preferably) or a candle. If you have a good space outdoors where you will not be disturbed, you could choose to do the whole ritual outdoors too.

You can do this anytime, ideally post moonrise. Try not to take it too close to the night/your sleeping time.

(Please check Moonrise/Moonset timings, I use the My Moon Phase app.)

A) CENTERING

Sit in a meditative posture. Centre yourself by observing your connection with Mother Earth. Remember your Gurus and ancestors and seek their blessings. Visualize a Full Moon in your eyebrow centre. As you inhale and exhale a few times, ask the lunar energies to flow through you and guide you.

If you love chanting, close eyes and do the ‘Om Som Somaiyah Namah’ chant 7 times.

B) MOVEMENT

Do a movement practice to release and open up the body. This could be asana/gentle stretching/dance/anything that you are familiar with. It could even be unstructured movement.

Once you finish moving, sit down and watch the inhales and exhales, allowing them to slow down. Take at least 14 breaths. Keep the breath quiet, smooth and steady.

C) PUTTING DOWN GIFTS AND SHIFTS

Take your journal and divide the page by drawing a line vertically down the middle. Alternately use two pages. Write the heading 'GIFTS' on the left half and 'SHIFTS' on the right half.

This will need to be done in steps, without any rush. Mentally divide the year into 4 quarters - January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December.

Close your eyes and take a few breaths to recenter yourself. Reflect on the first three months. Relive all that you can remember. These could be all kinds of experiences - joyful, challenging, emotional, moments of gratitude etc. Remember to maintain the attitude of a witness and notice how your body is responding to the reflection as you do it. Once you have reflected about the time period, start putting down what you think were blessings/gifts that came your way under 'GIFTS'. Under 'SHIFTS' you will enter changes that you consciously made to improve your life or had to make under the circumstances, towards resolving what you were faced with that that time. These could be your own perspectives, attitude, responses, habits, ways of thinking and doing (or any other inner work) OR actual physical/tangible/external changes like moving to a new place, disconnecting with someone or something that you do not relate with anymore, exploring new avenues of your passion, choosing to pay more attention to your health etc. Take time to put these down. Then repeat the process for the remaining periods.

(Know that thinking of some experiences can bring up strong feelings and emotions. When that happens, allow them to come forth. Touch the Earth and hold space for yourself. Breathe gently through it. Tell yourself that you are a witness, emotions are not a bad thing. Your emotions and experiences are precious, leaving you with something valuable even if you cannot fully decipher them yet.)

Once you are done, go through the whole writing to synthesize and absorb.

D) FREEFLOW JOURNALING

Close eyes again and visualize the Full Moon in your heart space, take a few breaths.

Take a fresh new page in your journal and start writing continuously using the prompt:

I am blessed as I....

Write continuously without thinking and without taking pen off paper for 5 to 10 minutes. Then read what you have written, again noticing how your body is receiving the reading and responding.

E) AFFIRMATION

Close your eyes and sit in silence for a while or lie down if you feel the need for more grounding. Repeat this affirmation silently, feeling it in your body as you say it:

I have everything within me, I am Full.

F) CLOSING THE RITUAL

Close the ritual by offering gratitude to your Gurus, ancestors, the Moon and Mother Earth.

After this, go for a walk outside to soak in the lunar energies. Gaze at the Full Moon for a while if weather permits.

Have a wonderful year-end practice and an authentic, mindful start to 2026!

Hugs, love & gratitude

Sheetal

*Niyama is the second limb of Ashtanga Yoga as listed by Sage Patanjali. They are rules of conduct that apply to individual discipline. The five niyamas listed are shaucha (purity), santosa (contentment), tapas (ardour or austerity), svadhyaya (study of the self) and isvara pranidhana (dedication to the Lord).

Source: Light on Yoga by B.K.S.Iyengar