2024 Word of the Year
For the past few years, I’ve been enacting a practice in my life called The Word of the Year.
(You can see my 2023 post here, and my 2022 post here). I usually do this twice a year – at the turn of the calendar year, and secondarily on my own solar return (birthday).
The gist of the exercise is:
- You briefly close your eyes, center yourself, and ask – “What’s my word of the year?” Usually within a handful of seconds to minutes, you will intuitively feel an answer that resonates at your core.
- Write down the word and what it means to you.
- Look up the definition of that word in the dictionary.
- Write down the definition and how/why you want that to be your Word of the Year.
It has been an incredibly impactful practice for me, and at random times throughout my year, I will find myself coming back to the word. Whether I’m brushing my teeth, boarding a plane, or getting ready for bed – suddenly the word will pop up in my mind, and remind me of what I’m embodying this year.
My words of the year have been:
2021: evolve
After three years, I can genuinely say, I have been blown away with how one simple word has paved the way for incredible growth in my life year after year.
2021: evolved by starting my own business
2022: embodied deep self and Universal love
2023: created a best-selling book, global retreats, and so much more!
For 2024, my word is “be.”
This verb is fascinating to me because the dictionary definition is simply “to exist.”
I wrote down a few other things the word “be” means to me.
- To exist. Period.
- To embody
- To have the quality of
- To let all flow unto you as your divine birthright
- Stillness
- Allowance
- Feminine (opposite of the masculine doing)
- Presence
- Centeredness and groundedness
You are a human being
Let’s take this one step further.
You reading this on the physical level of earth are presumably a human being.
In breaking down the words and researching them, I came to an interesting connection.
Most people generally agree that “hu” in “human” is a temporal alteration in pronunciation from the Latin “homo” (meaning “man”).
One interesting answer on Quora mentioned that much of Latin was rooted in Greek. This suggests that “homo” might even more deeply stem from the Greek “ómas” meaning “the whole or group (of something).”
Does this possibly lend to a translation that “human being” literally means “the whole of existence?”
Robert Edward Grant, a modern polymath and author, recently stated in one of his talks that “the Universe is U inverse.”
As above, so below. As within, so without.
This goes along well with the spiritual concept of the Law of One, which states that there is only a singularity of innate Oneness. (For personal experience and deeper perspectives on this, read my full blog post from the dark retreat).
If there is only Oneness, that means there is only the Self – the fractal known as “you” – which everything is then a mirror of.
To be becomes I am
Interestingly, after I decided “be” to be my word of the year, my 10 years of Spanish classes suddenly perked up.
In Spanish, the verb “ser” means “to be.”
When conjugated in the present tense I (yo) form, it becomes “soy.”
An example is: “Yo soy Neal,” or “I am Neal.”
“Be” therefore becomes “I am.”
“I am” is what you are in your most complete form, because you are everything.
So why is “be” my Word of the Year for 2024?
Simply put, being is who and what we are.
We have often become so caught up in our externally stimulated day-to-day lives – filled with the need to have a successful career, be X kind of partner or parent, make Y amount of money, live in Z kind of house – that we have fully forgotten what it actually means to embody the essence of being.
What happens when we drop the stories and narratives that we tell ourselves? What happens when we forgive ourselves for the self-imposed stresses and pressures we create in our lives? What happens if we simply – be?
To exist is a gift. To be able to have the human experience where we can feel the swath of emotions and live a tangible life outside of etheric consciousness, is something to take in with ever-present gratitude.
In existence and being, you are going to the core of what you are actually here to do – which is simply to exist as the most authentic and Highest expression of the gift YOU are.
A question I often ask myself is, “If this were my last life on earth, how would I want to live it?”
To embody your existence and allow blessings and abundance to flow unto you is your divine birthright.
We’ve obfuscated what we actually are through lenses of consumerism, capitalism, religion, societal belief systems, and so much more.
For me, I’m ready to fully be the embodiment of my Highest Timeline – and in turn, allow others to do the same for themselves.
Have an incredible 2024! You are already everything, because you are. Wishing you an abundance of love, joy, health, prosperity, and beingness in the new year and beyond.
What’s your 2024 Word of the Year?
