Some Trigger Words for 2025 (and when your intention abandons you)
Choosing and using, setting the tone, creating fullness, letting go, plus showing up one day at a time, sometimes with a pint and pjs
A note from Caitlin of Dose of Wonder: This week’s guest post is from Danni Levy of How To Live This Life. She writes for self-love, deep connection & to care for this life.
So without further ado, check out her guest article below!
Hello friend (and hello 2025)!
My trigger word for 2024 was FULLER. And this was my main focus for the 365 days of last year. Every day when I woke an affirmation, a thought, meditation or prayer to feel fuller, love myself fuller, show up fuller. With more reminders to myself throughout the day when I inevitably lost my way. And without this word and my constant reminders – daily recommittments to my greatest desire for the entire year – I wouldn’t have gotten through it.
I would not, may I dare say, THRIVED in the many super straight corners of difficulty I found myself backed into this past year.
2024: A year filled with personal challenge for so many, and oh my gosh, challenges worldwide. Lots of spaces of joy and satisfaction in between all those spaces of spoken and unspoken cruelty, separation, and darkness. Yes indeeed, 2024 was a FULLER year.
2025. While many see the new year as a beginning, I prefer to experience it as a continuation of us growing and glowing up. And therefore, it is no surprise that how we decided to show up in 2024 influences how we will decide to show up in 2025.
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So first, back to last year’s word: fuller
For me, a fuller year meant embracing it all, including myself and everyone else, especially when we weren’t able to show up fuller, fully, or even close to our best. Including the situations, setbacks, and disappointments. Including hurt and loss.
So yes, I delighted in time spent with family and friends, good food, an occasional glass of wine… girl’s nights with my girls, weekend getaways with my husband. The occasional thought-free day. Travel. Lots of sunshine. Late mornings under the covers, sometimes with caramel popcorn or a pint of dairy-free, Cherry Garcia. Unapologetic rest. Moments of calm and silence. Aaahhh!
The very intimate sparks of joy as my projects came together and alive!
So much love, gratitude, and pride filling me fuller and fuller throughout the entire year. And with this, acceptance of the other types of moments.
Moments of exhaustion, frustration, anger, pain, and grief. Oh boy, all those restless days and sleepless nights. And, yes again (a calming breath here)… all part of being fully human in this life. So this too, included in what it means to live fuller than before.
A fuller life requires us to be willing to be fully(er) exposed.
And as a result of all this intentional opening up to everything life has to offer us, my writing. Also fuller this past year. More honest. With more imperfection. And with more faith.
Less expectations allowed me to expose myself more – hopefully for common good, but definitely for my own greatness.
Not holding back during the doubt.
And not even during all those times when it felt as if nobody was listening from the other side... being with that silence… my own magnificent commitment to fuller-ness keeping me pretty great company.
How Did My Word Work?
Well, when things got tough, I would remind myself that FULLER means finding value in it all and this really put things into perspective for me.
It motivated me to put more of my own fullness into every experience, and not only the parts of life that I love and enjoy.
Reminding myself of my desire for FULLER, made me braver this year. In so many ways.
Being fuller meant pushing myself out of comfort zones. Even the ones that seemed to be serving me as full being protection.
Pushing ourselves out of comfort is something that growth will ask of us for a lifetime. We know this, but we need to remind ourselves every single day.
Sweetie, you and I have a tendency of wanting life to look and feel like a carefree day on a tropical beach. But the full(er) life is impossible without full-in discomfort.
Can we feel the peace within our heart when we are pushed into strong storms and heavy rains, flying sand stinging our eyes and causing every fold of our body to twitch and itch?
We get so stuck in the habits and patterns because the familiar feels safe. This is a lie.
Too much safety is a thing. It exists! Because when we get stuck in safety our heart closes, and then our mind, and then our world. It produces more and more need for safety and this produces more and more fear. Life ceases to be a journey. It becomes a jail cell.
I let go of old chains keeping me back.
perfectionism and appearances,
expectations, mine and others.
judgment – internal and external. Not being good, ready or young enough.
I now understand that showing up fuller sometimes means showing up as a version of yourself that is worse than yesterday’s.
I showed up, when my inner critic scathingly shouted:
You will never get past this.
You will never finish.
You will fail.
You suck!
I responded by continuing to use my voice for loving energy, starting this Substack (and deciding to put my blog to the side because it was better for my health), focusing on my effort to connect, creating meditations for my YouTube channel, publishing my first children’s book and now my second…
basically following my dreams and feeling proud and deciding to ignore the ‘you can feel like a success only when this happens’ standards. Feeling like a success because I am here.
notes found in between the pages of the book, Rising Strong by Brenè Brown, dated january 2, 2024: Publishing THE SAD PRINCESS – The search for a happily-ever-after smile, had so much to do with not listening.
Not listening to a mind that was telling me that it was taking too long and probably not happening. Afterall, I had already blown out the 53 candles on the cake.
This is when I turned to my heart, pumped fuller breath into my lungs, and perservered.
And with all this, I was compassionate with myself.
The year was FAR FROM PERFECT as I knew it would be.
So I allowed myself to trip, slip, shimmy, and fall straight back into the zones that felt most comforting. The ones that craddled me like extra marshmallows in hot chocolate on a gloomy day when I simply couldn’t do better.
I allowed this part of me and my life to be ok this year. Something that I wasn’t so good at in the past.
This is because I knew in my heart that I had my trigger word waiting for me right outside the comfort zone.
And that it would be there to pick me up again when my courage was ready to push me out into the wild world of growth.
Trust that I was growing and glowing even when the sun was shining through the windows and I was inside, under the blanket, in Hello Kitty jammies and with messy hair at 3pm, eating chips and Oreo cookies and lost in Netflix.
Yes, 2023 saw days like this too.
Let me ask you something:
How is your heart?
Think for a moment please. It is really important. Your answer will greatly determine what you are going to bring with you into 2025. It will also lead you to your word.
(this is your thinking space)
how is your heart? how is your heart? how is your heart? how is your heart?
The way we live our life depends much more on the state of our heart than a common thought: that we live according to our mind state.
(It is about heartset, honey!)
The truth is that the mind often lies to us. And an open heart tells the Truth. Always.
So be(a)ware of which one you are trusting. Asking: Do I have the courage to trust the honest part of me?
Growing an open heart takes both courage and trust (two essential words of 2025). And it also takes practice.
Almost EVERYTHING in this modern life tends to promote a closed, confined heart.
So we must practice counteracting basically every aspect of how we live.
We do this by choosing environments, activities, people, and information that nurture us fully.
Choosing not to feed ourselves with all the things that close us off, up, and out of our true feeling state – starting maybe by reducing time spent with the object you are looking at right now.
(just a reminder).
NOW, about this year's word. Have you already chosen one?
If you have, please share.
If not, I invite you to simply use your instinct. Do you remember how?
Once again, return to your heart (and your dreams).
another word for 2025 – dream!
Dreaming is the place to start when attempting to wedge oneself out of a man-made, mental corner – that invisible barrier keeping you from a full life.
The other morning, I asked my husband to close his eyes. It has been a difficult year for him and for us as a couple. It was a difficult morning.
I asked him to close his eyes and dream.
Dreams are like rivers and rainbows. Promise without limit, flowing naturally into something bigger than the dream itself. Possibility!
So he had a hard time. Not only dreaming, but with the closing his eyes part and feeling the promise in this teeny act.
“How is your heart?” I asked him as he looked at me. “Soften it. Please close your eyes Honey.”
(I watched him and thought: I can see the dream. It is in there, underneath all of the responsibility and reason, perhaps lots of guilt and regret. Buried.)
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After a few moments of resistance, he blinked them closed.
(It took time. The rest will also take time. I think his word for 2025 may be Patience.)
Reminder: Sometimes a dreaming heart must first be a kind, patient heart.
So to you I also say, “How is your heart? Close your eyes Honey. Visit yourself.”
(take a breath or two here)
Now for my word.
After this fuller year filled with amazingness, but just as much challenge and confusion, I feel like I can really use more courage and trust. Less fear. And joy. That joy of a peaceful heart.
I am finished with dimming my light with words and ways that do not nourish my heartspace. And so I am going straight to the source of all of this.
My word for 2025 is LOVE. I have been feeling it for a while now. This ‘just do love’ vibe. At the end of this year, as with the end of this life, I want to be able to say that I excelled. Done love so extraordinary well that I became it. So this year, constant reminders to bring love to my interactions and experiences, love to more risk and to those things we rarely notice (like the color purple gifted from the earth and sky and how much our fingers and toes do for us in a single day), and the mess. Can I bring acceptance to the next level and love the mess unconditionally? Of course, self-love and returning to my commitment to absolutely love this life, top on the list.
I will remember to stop during the day to ask myself:
Am I doing love honestly and without limits?
What part of my life deserves more love right now?
BE LOVE. BE LOVE. BE LOVE. Because the quality of my life depends on it.
Everything falls under one of the two: we are either fearing or we are loving. Which are you choosing?
Back to you. Still don’t have a word?
Try asking yourself:
What do I want less of this year?
What do I want more of this year?
CLOSE YOUR EYES and dream it towards you. You know what you need.
If not you, who else?
But also know that if you are having trouble closing your eyes, or if you do and you are still getting a blank, you can BE OK with it.
I SHALL GIVE YOU YOUR WORD.
Promise
Promise is all life’s possibility and potential wrapped in one. It is belief in yourself and the value of your life no matter what.
This is your fabulous, fall-back-on word.
Because Promise, sweetheart, is a trail of crumbs, a yellow brick road, and your magic carpet. Build it. Follow it. Let it fly you to the stars.
It is your reminder that YOU CAN. And that YOU WILL. As you have, so many times.
When you fall off course this is your reminder: My life has promise because I exist.
final note
We were fierce this year. You and me. In so many ways. We pushed through.
I read that this world demands this of us. Isn’t this the truth!
And we will do better. The world demands this of us too. But more importantly, because we know that we can.
Do better. It begins with a word, that loving word rising from your heart. Knowing it and then owning it. I believe this because choosing a single focus has changed my life in the most marvelous way.
Our trigger word is different from an intention or New Year’s resolution. Our word is our safety net, a place of focus holding us up and together when our intention abandons us on or around Sunday, January 19th, 2025.
No pressure, tho. Doing better does not require us to be a completely redefined version of ourselves. It simply means showing up for the most important word of the year, every year.
ATTENTION. Can we remind ourselves over and over and over again to be here? Be here just as we are. This is enough.
Attention is the highest form of love, a prerequisite for loving ourselves, others, and this life. Attention is the demonstration of respect for everyone and everything you love. Make it your highest purpose.
For the next 358 days, one day at a time, and even on those days when you won’t be able to ditch the bed or the bedhead. Just be here with ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ looks like.
Remember, how we show up for our word this year will influence 2026 and the rest of our life (but seriously, no pressure).
my heart reaching out to yours, xo Danni
ps Wanna share your word? Yay! Do it now.👇
*A BONUS FOR YOUR LOVE, SUPPORT, AND GENEROSITY
Extending this until January 12th: every paid or gifted ANNUAL subscription will come with a free copy of my new book ‘Happy & Sad FunBook for your emotions’. A value of $21.99 (taxes and shipping included) and my whole being gratitude for supporting my future books, the series you are extraOrdinary, and other projects.
Your generosity truly helps me to continue to self-publish these books. Know that I write for passion and from love.
All you have to do is send me an email (ANNUAL SUBSCRIBER in subject line) with the email address you used for the subscription and the name and address of the person you want me to ship the book to. I will then send you an email with the expected delivery date. Send email to hello.dannilevy@gmail.com
Another bonus!
Original, Guided Meditations – YOUR 14 DAY PLAYLIST FOR A GREAT START
INNER LOVING WARRIOR, 20 Minutes (Special Meditation with End of Year Message)
Tap here to SUBSCRIBE TO CHANNEL.
Thanks so much to Danni for sharing this great piece with all of you who subscribe to Dose of Wonder! Be sure to check out her Substack through the button below, or here if you’re viewing this on the app.
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