While I think it’s important to have what we call “evergreen,” (or always relevant) content here in the journal, I also think it’s interesting to take advantage of the timing of what is going on as it is initially published. I am really fascinated by seasonal shifts and timing, so today I’m here to share some ideas to work with before the upcoming “Leap Day,” February 29, 2020!
What is Leap Day? We commonly say that the earth rotates around the sun every 365 days, however that’s not exactly so- it’s a tiny bit off. Every 4 years, an additional day is added to the calendar to make the adjustment and get us back on track. In years divisible by 4, we have 366 days within a year instead of 365. I like to think of it as a “bonus day,” and a fun way to do something special with the extra time.
In the past, I’ve had fun acknowledging unique or special days on the calendar. In March 2015, we celebrated “Pi day.” Pi is the number used to calculate equations involving circles. It is an infinite number that goes on forever, but is commonly reduced to 3.14. Some businesses have caught on to celebrating “Pi day,” March 14 (3/14), by offering special pricing on pie, pizza pie, and in some cases anything circular. In 2015, it was fun to extend the digits to 3.1415- the “Pi day of the century.” In my hypnosis practice, I celebrate “Pi day” by holding a group hypnosis session focusing on our infinite selves, which usually involves sessions accessing Soul guidance, as our souls represent the part of us that is infinite. In addition to Pi day, I enjoy taking advantage of the symbolism of seasonal shifts, the calendar new year, my client’s birthday, even daylight savings time to help clients become more aware of the passage of time, goal setting and achievement.
Some fun ways that you can work with “Leap year” this year:
- Encourage clients to explore big goals that are significant or even “scary.” We often say we are “taking a leap” when we are doing something new or different. Sometimes we say it’s a “leap of faith.” Our hypnosis clients often see us with big goals, so it’s a great time to encourage them to take an extra leap toward their goal on February 29.
- Ask clients what they’d like to do with “more time?” In one of my smoking cessation sessions, an important theme is trading something we don’t even like (the cigarettes) for something priceless (more time). February 29, Leap Day, literally provides us the rare opportunity to have more time, and we don’t even have to make a trade for it. It’s a great opportunity to think about how we would like to use this “extra time” to be more happy and healthy, more productive and fulfilled. I use this idea each year when we gain an hour of time by turning back our clocks in the fall to revert to Standard time. While we technically lose that hour another point in the year, I always enjoy celebrating my “bonus hour” each fall.
- Conversely, both Leap day and daylight savings time in the spring are opportunities to explore time management and ways to use our time better. This is especially helpful when working with clients who want to overcome procrastination and time wasting habits like smoking or even overthinking. I’ll often ask people who spend a significant amount of time in negative habits how they’d like to use their time better, to be more efficient, especially when we lose an hour by setting the clocks forward an hour. During a leap year, we can remind clients that we get a bonus day this year, but it requires us to remember to be more efficient during traditional calendar years.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration into Leap Day! Remember, this year we get 366 days to achieve our goals so let’s take the leap and make it happen!