New Moon Ritual: Setting intentions and beginning again
The New Moon marks the beginning of a new cycle as it moves between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun's rays from our view and leaving our night sky dark. It can feel uncomfortable to sit in darkness, and yet if we embrace it, we can tune our thinking brain out and connect more into our bodies. When we can tap into what we intuitively need, we can plant the seeds of those intentions to bring them into the world. It's not a time to act, it's a time to feel.
This is one of the simplest practices I return to every month, and it doesn't ask for any prior experience with breathwork or ritual. All it asks is a few quiet minutes and a willingness to feel what's actually there before deciding what comes next.
What Is a New Moon Ritual?
A new moon ritual is a personal practice built around the start of the moon's monthly cycle. To be clear, this isn't a clinically studied practice, and it won't fix a problem on its own. It's a spiritual and reflective tool, not a treatment. What it can offer is a repeatable pause, a moment each month where you check in with yourself before life speeds back up.
Why Breath Comes Before Journaling
Most intention-setting practices start with a question: what do you want? If you ask that question before your body has settled, you'll usually get an answer from your head. It'll sound reasonable. It might even be true. It just won't always be the deepest thing available to you.
A slow, steady breath signals to your nervous system that nothing needs to be solved right now. Once that signal lands, something quieter often has room to come forward. That's why this ritual leads with breath before it leads with a pen.
A New Moon Ritual
To help us connect to our bodies and our feelings, I've provided a short ritual that you can do on or near the New Moon.
You'll need:
Quiet, comfortable place
Journal
10 to 15 minutes
Step 1: Get Still
As we sit in the proverbial darkness, we see that the only way is through, and the way through is to feel. To help you come into your own body, find a quiet (and perhaps dark) place where you can be still. Find a comfortable position and take a deep, cleansing breath.
Step 2: Use the Balance Breath Tool
Then use the balance breath tool to drop into your body.
Sit comfortably and close your eyes.
Begin to deepen your breath by taking equal inhales and exhales through your nose.
Consider using an equal count (for example, inhale for 1-2-3-4-5, exhale for 5-4-3-2-1) or repeat a mantra to yourself to help you maintain your focus.
Continue for 4 to 5 breath cycles.
Step 3: Reconnect to Your Feelings
Once you've completed the breath exercise, bring your awareness to the following questions:
What do you feel in your body right now?
Get specific: What do your toes feel like? What do your thighs feel like? How do your sitz bones feel on the earth, cushion, or chair?
What physical and imagined sensations are you experiencing? (Examples of physical sensations are tingly, warm, solid; examples of imagined sensations are golden, shimmery, joy, etc.)
If you've come up with imagined sensations, try to go a little deeper.
Wiggle your toes. What do you feel?
Rub your thighs. What do you feel?
How is the quality of feeling different from what you experienced the first time?
Step 4: Set Your Intention
Now that you've identified how you feel in your body, in this moment, what else is coming through for you? Set your intention for the month ahead. This could be something you're calling in, or a shift you're ready to grow into, something that aligns with your higher self. Write your intention down in your journal. We'll revisit the intention during the Full Moon.
Tips to Keep This Practice Going
Pick a rhythm. Doing this ritual on or near the new moon helps it become a habit instead of a one-time experiment.
Take action at the waxing crescent moon. In lunar tradition, the waxing crescent, when the first sliver of light returns to the sky about 1 to 3 days after the new moon, is considered the time for that first initial action. Waxing means growing, just like your intention.
Revisit it at the full moon. Two weeks later, the full moon is a natural checkpoint to look back at the intention you set and notice what's shifted. If you're ready to release something at that point, the Full Moon Burn Ritual on the blog is a good next practice to explore.
Let it be imperfect. Some months you'll feel a lot. Other months, not much will surface. Both are normal.
New Moon Ritual FAQ
How often does a new moon happen?
About once every 29.5 days, since that's roughly how long it takes the moon to complete one cycle around the earth. That means you'll have a new opportunity to do this ritual almost every month.
Do I need to believe in astrology for this to work?
No. You can treat this ritual as a monthly check-in with yourself and skip the astrology angle entirely. The breath and body awareness part of the practice stands on its own, whether or not the lunar timing means anything to you personally.
What if nothing comes up when I check in with my body?
That's common, especially the first few times. Try not to force an answer. Sometimes the most honest response is simply noticing that you feel numb or unsure, and that's worth writing down too. With practice, most people find it gets easier to feel what's underneath.
Do I need any breathwork experience to try this?
No prior experience is needed. The Balance Breath Tool is gentle and used here only to help you settle, not to create an intense release. If you want to explore more active breathwork tools, you can find several on the blog.
Ready to Go Deeper?
A monthly ritual like this one is a good place to start, but some patterns need more than a journal and a quiet room to move. If you're working through something that keeps resurfacing, or you're ready for support beyond what you can do alone, private breathwork and Reiki sessions or a group healing circle might be the next step.
Book a discovery call and we will talk about whether private sessions, or a group healing circle, is the right next step for you.
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Trish D. Brewer is a certified trauma-informed Breathwork Coach and Usui/Holy Fire® III Reiki Master Teacher. She helps people committed to real, lasting change release stored stress, move through old patterns, and reconnect with themselves. She came to this work through her own body, not just a textbook. A medical emergency pushed her to stop putting her own healing last, and this experience shapes how she works with every client today. She is the co-author of Hot Mess to Hot Mom, We Lead Volume 2 and Volume 3, and 100 Poems and Possibilities for Healing, Volume 2.
