Sacred Path Guides How to Review Your Year Without Regret (Solstice Edition)

December 21 isn’t just “the holidays.”

It’s the Winter Solstice — the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere — and in 2025 it lands on December 21 at 9:03 a.m. CST. EarthSky+1

And if you live your life (or run your business) even a little bit in sync with the Wheel of the Year, Solstice isn’t the ending of something.

It’s the turning point.

It’s the moment the light starts coming back. Slowly. Quietly. But inevitably.

In modern Pagan/Wiccan practice, the Wheel of the Year is a cycle of eight seasonal festivals (Sabbats) that track the seasons and the energy shifts through the year — and Yule is the Winter Solstice stop on that wheel. Wikipedia+1

So if January 1 feels like a loud, glittery capitalism deadline… yeah, it does for me too.

Solstice is different. Solstice says: We begin again because nature does.

And that makes this the perfect time to review your year — not with regret, but with wisdom.

Looking Back vs. Spiraling Back

There’s a difference between reviewing your year and emotionally time-traveling into every choice you wish you’d made differently. OMG, this year has been nothing but a spiral for me in my personal life and business!

One gives you clarity. The other steals your momentum and lights your nervous system on fire.

Regret shows up when you review through the lens of what you didn’t do:

“I should’ve launched sooner.”
“I should’ve posted more.”
“I should’ve figured it out by now.”

Cool story, but not helpful.

Because regret ignores context. It ignores capacity. It ignores that you were working with the information, energy, money, support, and nervous system you had at the time.

Solstice doesn’t ask you to judge yourself. It asks you to witness what’s true… and choose what you’re carrying forward.

A Quick Wheel of the Year Note (Because People Will Argue About This)

You’ll see a lot of folks calling Solstice/Yule the “new year” — and for many modern Pagans, it is the reset point because it marks the sun’s “rebirth” and the return of light. Encyclopaedia Britannica+1

You’ll also see people call Samhain (around Oct 31–Nov 1) the “Witches’ New Year,” because it’s associated with the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year in Celtic tradition and modern practice. HISTORY+2Time+2

Both ideas circulate. Different paths, different lineages, different meanings.

For this post, we’re working with the Solstice-as-reset vibe: the turning, the returning, the quiet beginning.

Review Your Year Like a Case Study (Not a Courtroom)

Here’s the shift that changes everything:

Stop reviewing your year like you’re on trial.
Start reviewing it like you’re running a case study.

A case study doesn’t shame you. It observes you.

It asks:

What worked?
What didn’t?
What did it cost?
What did it teach?
What wants to be repeated?
What needs to be composted?

That’s Solstice energy in a nutshell: truth, release, rebirth.

The Solstice Review Ritual (Simple. Not Precious.)

Grab a drink. Light a candle if you’re into that. If you’re not, turn on a lamp and call it “electric fire.” We’re flexible.

Then do this in your journal: (google doc, notebook, legal pad, phone note)

1) What light did you create this year?

Not the highlight reel. Not the “impressive” stuff.

The real stuff:

What did you do that took courage?
What did you keep showing up for even when it was awkward, slow, or unpaid?
What did you survive and still manage to build through?

Name it. If you don’t, your brain will conveniently forget it and continue its favorite hobby: bullying you.

2) What didn’t work — and what got in the way?

This is information, not a character assessment.

Ask:

Was I unclear?
Was the strategy misaligned?
Was I overcommitted and under-supported?
Was I running on fumes and calling it “discipline”?
What external circumstances mattered here?

You’re not assigning blame. You’re mapping reality so you can stop repeating the same loop like it’s a personality trait.

3) What are you done carrying?

Solstice is about darkness and the return of light.

So be honest:

What beliefs made everything harder?
What obligations weren’t actually yours?
What “shoulds” are you ready to drop-kick into the void?

Write it down like a release list. That’s your energetic declutter.

4) What tiny flame are you protecting next?

Not a 47-step plan. Not a reinvention.

A flame.

Choose 1–3 things you want to grow between now and Imbolc (early February on the Wheel of the Year, traditionally associated with the first stirrings of returning life). Wikipedia+1

Examples:

“I create content twice a week, no drama.”
“I rebuild my offer suite so it doesn’t rely on me bleeding out.”
“I make one solid sales system and stop collecting them like Pokémon.”

Keep it small enough to be real.

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The Regret Trap to Avoid (Yes, I’m Calling It Out)

The fastest way to ruin your review is to measure your year against someone else’s highlight reel.

That’s self-sabotage and gaslighting. Enough!

Your year happened inside your body, your life, your responsibilities, your energy, your circumstances.

Comparison will always make your progress look “not enough,” because comparison isn’t designed to be fair. It’s designed to be loud.

A Regret-Free Solstice Review Looks Like This

You acknowledge what went well and why
You name what didn’t work without shame
You identify patterns worth repeating and patterns worth breaking
You honor the behind-the-scenes growth that doesn’t fit on a spreadsheet
You let the fantasy version of the year go, and respect the real one

Because the year you had is the year you had.

You can’t rewrite it — but you can choose what it means. And that choice is everything.

Solstice doesn’t ask you to prove anything, but rather to turn the page on purpose.

Light returns. Not all at once. Not dramatically.

But it returns.

And so can you.

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