Today, I share one of the most powerful rituals I’ve practiced for over a decade: reflection, clearing, and letting go of the past so you don’t carry old baggage into what’s next. I walk you through why reflection isn’t about judgment or regret, but about harvesting the good, honoring the lessons, and consciously choosing the story you carry forward. This practice has become a non-negotiable in my life and business, and I’ve seen it transform thousands of people in our community. When the past is complete, you’re left with a clean slate and from nothing, anything becomes possible. As we close out 2025 and step into a new cycle of momentum, this episode is your invitation to reset with intention, wisdom, and gratitude. Let’s do this!
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Read the full transcript
A Season of Reflection
Welcome to the Mystic Millionaire Podcast. My name is Danielle Amos, and I’m grateful to be here recording this solo episode in my cozy office as we close out 2025. I’ve been in a season of deep reflection about what this year has been all about, and this episode is to encourage you to clear, cut and complete this past year powerfully so that you can move into the new year with a clean slate.
The work that we do within our community in the month of December is life changing, and I wanted to bring it here to the podcast and encourage all of you not to bring the baggage from the past season, the past year or previous years of your life into what’s next for you. This powerful ritual is something I was taught about 15 years ago, and it’s become a non-negotiable in my business. Over the past 10 years, we’ve done this religiously in our community.
You may have noticed when I started the podcast that I was burning palo santo. Because I’ve been doing so much work and reflecting in the month of December, I’ve been constantly cleansing my space, and I encourage you to do the same thing. You might use sage, palo santo or a similar cleansing agent to clear the energy.
Why Reflection Is So Powerful
Let me share with you why reflection is so powerful. Oftentimes, without even realizing it, we bring the garbage, our perceptions, our memories and the stories we make up about the events that have happened into the future. There’s an impact to that, especially when you’re in a season where you’ve had a lot of lessons, or perhaps things didn’t go quite as you had planned.
This reflection exercise, also known as clearing and cutting, or what we’ve called bless and release, is a way to complete a season of life. Reflection is something you can do at the end of a day, at the end of a workshop you’ve provided for your clients or a signature talk, at the end of a week or a month, the end of a marriage, the end of a project at work, any season that is complete. I’m going to explain at a high level what you’re going to do and why. If any of you feel called to join us, you can access the recording and go through the full workshop. We’ll put a link in the show notes, and you’re encouraged to join us for the rest of December or moving into January as we create a clean slate for 2026 so that anything really is possible.
We Are Story-Making Machines
Like I said, what’s ordinary for people is to bring the garbage from the past into the future without even realizing it. As humans, we have events that happen to us, or for us, in our lives. There’s the event, the thing that happened, and then there’s the story we make up about the event.
Part of my training comes from Landmark, and a huge principle of Landmark is that humans are story-making machines. Everything that happens, we make up a story about it, and the truth is we have the ability to make up a story that serves us or one that doesn’t serve us. So choose wisely. Without even knowing it, we make up a story, and that story dictates what comes next for us and dictates our experience.
That story will be in harmony with our paradigm, the way we were programmed to look at life. We will experience the side of the event that’s in harmony with our paradigm, the side that allows our current set of beliefs to keep telling their own story. This is why two people can have very different experiences of the same event. The beliefs each person holds in their subconscious mind determine which part of that circumstance they experience. Our mind is always looking for evidence so that we’re always right, if that makes sense.
The Gatekeeper of Your Mind
So there’s an event that happens in our life, and then there’s the story we tell about it. Picture your mind as a warehouse with a gatekeeper standing at the front. That gatekeeper determines which memories stay top of mind so they can remind us and be used moving forward, and which events and stories get tossed to the back of the warehouse where we don’t pay much attention to them. The gatekeeper decides what stays top of mind by the amount of emotion we give to an event and the story we make up about it.
As a society, we’ve been programmed to notice what’s wrong and to see what’s missing. So very often, when an event isn’t what you hoped it would be, or it’s a negative event, stronger emotions get attached to it, and the gatekeeper of your mind stores that memory in the filing cabinet up front so it’s easy to remind you.
Perhaps you’re about to launch a product, and the launch requires you to hire a marketing company. The last time you hired a marketing company, it failed and you lost $25,000. There would be a lot of emotion around losing that money, so the gatekeeper files that memory and the story, “Don’t hire a marketing company,” top of mind. The next time you go to hire one, it says, “Hey, don’t do that. Remember last time? Learn from your mistakes.”
But let’s say you did hire the marketing company, and in that launch you desired 100 new clients and 25 came. Well, 25 clients at a thousand dollars is $25,000, and to a lot of people that would be quite a win. But we have a habit in society of downplaying our wins. We were taught to be modest and not to brag. So even though $25,000 in income is something incredible to celebrate, it wasn’t what you were expecting or what you desired, so it wasn’t good enough. You brush that result under the rug and make up a story that the launch wasn’t that good, and whatever story you make up becomes your truth. You have the ability to make up a different story that serves you.
Because we’ve been programmed to look for what’s wrong and to be modest rather than celebrate, the gatekeeper throws that win to the back of the warehouse. There isn’t much emotion attached to it. Instead, the stronger emotion is the memory of how the marketing company failed you. So you go out and launch your next product, and you remember what happened and think, “It didn’t work out that well.”
Harvest the Good and the Lessons
What I recommend, and the work we do in reflection in our community, is that you reflect back on everything that has happened over the year, harvest the good, gain the lesson from each event, and then add more emotion to your wins. That way your wins and your lessons are top of mind, so next time you can make informed decisions, learning from the past. That catapults you into the future with a totally new skill set, with awareness, with knowing, and with a memory of how incredible you are, because you’ve celebrated your wins.
I share this because at first glance, when people look back on their year, they notice what didn’t go well. A lot of our clients start with a long list of things that didn’t go well, and then as they keep reflecting, they say, “Oh my gosh, January, February, look at all the things I did. Look at all the wins I actually had.” Many things they forgot or brushed under the rug come to the surface, and now they feel so much gratitude for the year.
Then we give them tools to transform and transmute all the negative stories they were telling themselves about their failures into beautiful wisdom and lessons they can take forward into the new year. By the end, the person feels so empowered by the wisdom they’ve gained and incredibly grateful for all the gifts the previous season brought.
Forgiveness Is for You
It’s my goal to bring each and every one of you to a place where, no matter what happened, you feel absolute gratitude for the people you’ve attracted into your life, for the circumstances and the experiences, for all of it. Not just the good stuff, but most importantly the challenges. Can you honestly sit with the feeling of, “I’m so grateful for this person. I’m so grateful for this event”? Once you can honestly say you’re grateful for even your worst enemy, you’ve done the work.
See, forgiveness isn’t for the other person. It’s for you. When you recognize that life has always been working out for you, that there are so many gifts in what that person brought to you, and you reframe it, it doesn’t mean you have to condone their behavior or be best friends with them. This is between you and you, and the wisdom you gain.
A Clean Slate for 2026
Reflection is an exercise we do every single December, and it allows us to complete and close out the past in an incredible way. You harvest the good and take the lessons into the future, truly informed, and it’s complete. When the year is complete, you’ll find you have a blank, clean slate, and with a clean slate, anything is possible. From nothing, everything exists. Because you’ve completed the past season, anything is possible for 2026, and you have a blank canvas where you can write honestly about what you would love to see happen.
So I share this with you as we move through December with an open heart and an open mind to complete this past year. Whatever 2025 brought you, harvest the good and harvest the lessons so you don’t need to repeat them. Many people say a lesson continues until you’ve learned it, and I want to say until you’ve embodied the wisdom, until you can truly walk as a changed human, with the lessons in your heart, and they’ve made a difference for you.
2026 is the Year of the Horse. It’s the year of momentum, a one year of new beginnings. Let’s complete this shedding year, the Year of the Snake, a nine year of completion, with power, and gain the wisdom.
Thank you for listening, and thank you for being here on the Mystic Millionaire Podcast. My name is Danielle Amos, and I’m grateful and honored to be walking this journey with you, to be a mentor, and to be unapologetic in walking in harmony with universal truths and the Laws. I see you, and I know it’s possible for you. Thank you, and expect abundance. Happy holidays, everybody.