Misogi: A Different Kind of Resolution

Sunrise Pier

Every January, we make promises that feel tidy in our daily planners. Eat better. Work harder. Be nicer. Do more volunteer work. Lose ten pounds. Read more books.

They are respectable intentions. Sensible. Manageable. And by February, most of them have already slipped quietly out the back door.

Misogi asks something very different of us.

Shirley Canyon Waterfall

Rooted in ancient Japanese purification rituals, misogi originally meant immersing oneself in icy water or standing beneath a waterfall, a physical cleansing meant to quiet the mind and strip the spirit down to what is essential. The water wasn't symbolic. It was shockingly real. It demanded presence. It allowed no shortcuts.

The Bridge

Instead of scattering our energy across a list of small, well-intentioned goals, misogi asks us to choose one defining act... something so demanding it creates a clear before and after. One moment that resets not just our habits, but our sense of what we’re capable of carrying forward into the year ahead. Publishing a book. Starting a business. Earning a Pilot's License. A creative or personal leap with real stakes. Something with a genuine 50/50 chance of success.

Not a goal you're confident you can achieve, but one you're not sure you can.

Misogi isn't about improvement. It's about reset. A cold, clarifying plunge into discomfort that sheds old habits, familiar excuses, and inherited limits. It creates a powerful New Year’s threshold, one that doesn’t fade by mid-winter, setting a tone of courage and humility that quietly shapes the months that follow.

No Taxi

At its core, misogi is about transformation. Not polishing the surface of who you already are, but relinquishing the version of yourself that plays it safe. When you willingly step into something that demands everything—your body, your focus, your resolve—you discover a deeper reservoir of strength than you knew existed.

There's something deeply honest about this kind of resolution. You can't bluff your way through it. You can't multitask it. You can't scroll past it. You're either present, breathing, trembling—and alive—or you retreat.

And that moment, standing at the edge... or the verge, is where the real work happens.

Grand Canyon

In nature, transformation rarely comes gently. Rivers carve canyons by force. Trees bend and twist under wind and snow until their strength becomes part of their shape. The ancient Junipers I photograph here in the Sierra were not formed by comfort. They were shaped by exposure, by cold, by drought, by time.

Misogi follows the same logic.

When you choose a misogi, you embrace discomfort not as punishment, but as teacher.

You confront fear not to defeat it, but to see it clearly. And in doing so, you begin to understand what you're actually capable of, rather than the script you've been following for years.

Lady Nicola

After misogi, the world doesn't become easier, but you become larger. Everyday obstacles shrink in proportion. Doubt loses some of its authority. Confidence arrives more earned rather than declared.

This is why misogi offers such a potent alternative, or supplement, to traditional New Year’s resolutions. It doesn’t ask, What do I want to fix? It asks, Who might I become if I step fully into the cold... into uncertainty?

Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue, in his book To Bless The Space Between Us, encourages us to step out of our comfort zone and into the unknown in this poem:

FOR A NEW BEGINNING

by John O’Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Endless Road

As this new year begins, maybe the question isn't what you want to improve, but what verge you're willing to approach. What belief you're finally ready to surrender, and what new belief you're finally willing to adopt.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language.

And next year's words await another voice." ~ T.S. Eliot

The Beauty of Uncertainty

Choose one thing this year that doesn't just challenge you, but changes you. Not incrementally. But fundamentally. Audaciously.

And begin it.

And finally, remember that the true measure of misogi isn't the checkbox at the end, or the gold star in your daily planner, but the person who stands there breathing... changed and more awake than before.

That is misogi.

All photographs by Michael Kennedy / BlueWolfGallery.com

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I’m Michael Kennedy, a resident of Olympic Valley, CA (in photo above). I’m a writer & photographer and I love exploring nature and getting lost along the way. We live in a world that demands our attention and I just want to say thank you for your attention. If you enjoyed this post, please share with a friend. For more photos and stories visit BlueWolfGallery.com.