Running Your 2024 Through the Cosmic Car Wash

A playful guide to rinsing off the year's residue and reflecting joyfully

I'm feeling a mix of gratitude and raggedness (or "gragedness") as I wrap up the year. Like I'm driving out of 2024 with a good playlist on but my car covered in road salt, winter grime, and memories of roadtrips past rolling around in the backseat. We're all carrying a year's worth of experiences (some sparkly, some sticky) so let's take ourselves through a creative car wash — one with giant foam brushes, colored lights, and those jolly dancing tentacles. Instead of a deep scrub of serious reflection, let's turn on some Tame Impala, watch the soapy colors swirl, and take a playful look back in the rearview mirror.

Here are some creative ways to reflect that don't feel like homework.

10 Ways To Look Back At The Year Playfully

1. Send voice notes (or postcards) to loved ones recounting favorite shared memories from the year.
   

2. Look at your camera roll and relive the year through photos. Take notes!
   

3. Make a playlist of songs that defined your 2024 — songs that reflect the moments, memories, and emotions that defined your year. Then dance or draw to it.
   

4. In a few sentences, write the story of a favorite 2024 moment, remembering the feeling, senses, and vivid details of that memory.
   

5. Try the Car Wash Journal Method - Grab a piece of paper and divide it into car wash "stations." Run your year through Soap & Bubbles (highlights that sparkled), Rainbow Foam (vivid sensations & feelings), Power Wash (what to release & reset), and Hot Wax Seal (what to preserve & protect). Watch your memories get a little more sparkly as they flow through each station. Drawing optional, playfulness required!

   

6. Put on an angsty song and dance, focusing on expressing and releasing the anger and frustrations of the year. Shake, stomp your feet, scream! Imagine the anger is exiting your body. What color is floating away?
   

7. Make a list of things you're proud of yourself for — big or small.
   

8. Put on a favorite dance song and close your eyes. Imagine you are dancing at a magical club with all the people who showed up for you this year. Imagine them smiling at you, their ecstatic faces, their hands reaching out to dance, the colored lights and haze surrounding them glowing warm.
   

9. Write yourself a thank you note — from the perspective of a loved one — expressing gratitude for how you showed up this year.
   

10. Ask reflection questions and journal, voice note, or discuss. A big list of qs up ahead!

• What can you celebrate yourself for, big or small?

• When did you feel most ALIVE? Most playful?

• What did you learn? What's a random skill you picked up?

• Who showed up for you? Who did you show up for?

• What was hard & who or what helped you through it?

• What did you create?

• What did you grieve?

• What was FUN, like REALLY REALLY FUN?

• What small delights lit you up?

• What are you grateful for?

• What are you angry about?

• What's the best thing you ate?

• What’s your top scent memory of 2024?

• What felt amazing in your body?

• What's something you tried and spectacularly failed at (and can laugh about now)?

• What's the most unexpected friendship or connection you made?

• What's a small rebellion you're proud of?

• What's a comfort show/movie/book that got you through?

• What was one magical or serendipitous moment?

• What do you want to continue?

• What do you want to leave behind?

Now we can roll into 2025 feeling a bit more sparkly and alive (or at least less covered in road dust from the year). Remember, these reflection prompts are a menu of possibilities, not a to-do list.

Maybe you'll try one while waiting for your coffee to brew or maybe you’ll turn it into a play buffet and sample the whole list. Have fun with them or skip them entirely and drive into 2025 without looking back. Either way, we're doing great, Noomies.

Wishing you a 2025 full of creative spirit, funky new rituals, big fun, and magical moments when everything goes quiet except for the gentle swoosh-swoosh of soapy water. Looking forward to getting into it together.

Thanks for playing!

xo Piera