The holidays are almost exactly half a year apart, but in my mind there’s an unusual link between the Summer Equinox and New Year’s Eve.
Specifically, it happened on my most memorable equinox moment ever, when I taught a live yoga class in Times Square.
The annual event — dubbed “Mind Over Madness Yoga” — began in 2003 with just the co-founders and one student practicing in the rain.
Attendance has now grown to many thousands per year.
When I taught in 2006 — although the event was smaller — I vividly remember how hot it was, particularly on my bare feet since I wasn’t on a mat.
I also remember being startled that I was being broadcast on the Jumbotron, preparation for which wasn’t covered in my yoga teacher training.
Yet what stands out most of all was a conversation I had afterwards with a student I’d never officially met before.
I can’t recall his name, but he approached me and introduced himself.
It turns out he was a fellow yoga teacher who had apparently taken — and been profoundly inspired by — my annual New Year’s Eve class.
I’d created a ritual that I’ve used many times since in workshops and events.
I’d circle people around a candle, offering them a small piece of flash paper, a special, highly flammable paper used in magic tricks, theater, and special effects.
I’d invite students to write something they wanted to let go of, forgive, or simply release into the world.
Just touching the edge of the paper made it burn so rapidly yet cleanly you could toss it upward and it would be consumed before hitting the ground.
With the right music — and the right group energy — it made for a truly magical moment, especially for New Year’s Eve.
I was touched when this guy told me how much it had meant to him, but I was slightly startled when he shared that he’d adopted it for his own workshops.
I must confess to a moment of proprietary angst, but then — much like the flash paper itself — I was able to pretty much let it go, glad he was sharing something useful with the world.
This moment is on my mind for two intertwined reasons.
First — although I can’t promise any fire magic — I’m offering a FREE New Year’s Day workshop on January 1st.
You can sign-up HERE.
Unlike the ones I taught back in the day, there are no yoga poses involved.
Yet the emphasis is, of course, completely on Transformation and Reinvention, which leads me to the second link — and to the theme of this month’s new meditation HERE— the Power of Writing It Down.
You’ve probably heard some version of:
“In 1953 Yale (or 1979 Harvard) surveyed graduates.
3% had written goals.
20 years later, those 3% were earning more than the other 97% combined.”
Here’s the thing:
Those studies never happened.
No such survey appears in any Yale or Harvard — or any other school’s — archival records.
Somehow this claim became popular in the 1990s through self-help speakers like the venerable Stephen Covey who repeated the anecdote, but even they later admitted they never had a source.
Even so, I think it still FEELS true, because writing something down does have tremendous power… just not necessarily that particular one.
For a nanosecond, when my fellow yoga teacher told me he’d adopted my fire ritual idea, although I would never describe myself as a litigious sort, I wondered if I should have copyrighted it.
Beyond letting go of my ego’s mini temper tantrum, I also realized that would be impossible since one can’t copyright an idea, only the expression of an idea.
No matter how original your concept is — an exhausted laundromat owner must save the multiverse using alternate versions of herself; thieves enter people’s dreams to plant an idea in their subconscious — you still have to write the entire screenplaybefore you can register anything with the U.S. Copyright Office (which is part of the Library of Congress).
Even the most brilliant Ideas are entirely nebulous.
Only by writing something down does it become real.
I recorded this month’s meditation — again HERE — not as a writing for publication exercise.
Instead, as Natalie Goldberg offers in Writing Down the Bones (our Transformation Book Club’s December Selection • join us HERE)
“Writing is the act of discovering what you believe.”
In many interviews Joan Didion often said something quite similar:
“I don’t know what I think until I write it down.”
Writing forces us to be specific, moving us from undirected intention to deliberate creation.
In my old New Year’s Eve workshops, we wrote down what we wanted to release, but writing can just as easily be a declaration of what we want to receive.
In this month’s meditation HERE and in the January 1st workshop — again, it’s free HERE — I invited you to explore both possibilities.
Although that earlier study about written goals is a fantasy, there are some very real ones.
In fact, there are decades of solid research showing that writing things down can improve mental health, performance, memory, follow-through, and even physical well-being.
James Pennebaker’s expressive writing research demonstrated that writing about emotional experiences for just 15–20 minutes over 3–4 days leads to improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, fewer doctor visits, a better mood, and enhanced working memory.
Or take Geoffrey L. Cohen’s work on value-affirmation writing: students who spent only a few minutes writing about their personal values at the start of the school year earned significantly higher grades — especially those from groups vulnerable to stereotype threat — and the effects lasted for months to years.
Finally, Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough’s 2003 research demonstrated the undeniable benefits of gratitude journaling.
Participants reported higher optimism, exercised more, experienced fewer physical symptoms, and felt more connected and happier overall.
Are we surprised?
Since I’m about to release the SGR Journal (… soon … 🤞… soon …), I’m keenly aware of this data not just as my talking points for future podcast appearances, but as truths I witness in my own life.
Writing things down feels powerful because it forces us to get specific, to really define things — whether that’s what we want or what we want to let go of.
It even helps us understand more clearly how we think and how we feel.
And yes, there’s even one smaller study by Dr. Gail Matthews showing that participants who wrote down their goals AND shared progress with a friend were 33% more likely to achieve them than those who just “thought about” their desires.
(Nudge: Why not attend the New Year’s Day Workshop with a friend?)
More importantly, even if you’re not petitioning the U.S. Copyright Office, writing can make the most gossamer idea solid, the most vivid dream truly real.
Again, as Natalie Goldberg tells us, “Writing is an act of discovery,” and ultimately, that incredible thing you’re discovering is yourself.
Tell A New Story | Transform Your Life.
P.S. Last week, many of you wrote to share that, post–Mercury Retrograde, some of the links for my January Tell A New Story program weren’t working.
They are now HERE.
Early Bird pricing is also still in effect.
The invitation is wide open to reset, reinvent, and create the most amazing 2026 for yourself together.
Join us