4 Questions To Ask Yourself Before the New Year

It’s that time again, the moment in between years when people start making resolutions and setting intentions. But what if, instead of following statements, we let questions take the lead? In that spirit, we might look to the work of Audre Lorde, who described herself as a “Black, lesbian, feminist, warrior, poet.” She was also a lyrical badass who was committed to art and activism and believed asking yourself questions could be a radical act.

An American writer and professor, Lorde wrote what’s come to be known as a “Questionnaire to Oneself” as part of an essay that shows up in her Cancer Journals. Though these questions grew out of contemplation during illness, they can be used at any time. An alternative to year-end resolutions that imply we need to improve ourselves, her questions help us better know and understand who we are. From there, if we decide to make changes, they come from an entirely different energy. In fact, contemplating her questionnaire can be a form of svadhyaya, the Sanskrit term for self-study. It also aligns with the fourth niyama, or ethical principle of yoga, outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

“Our feelings are our most genuine path to knowledge,” Lorde said in a 1982 interview. “They are chaotic, sometimes painful, sometimes contradictory, but they come from deep within us. And we must key into those feelings…for new ways of understanding our experiences.”

Similar to how practicing yoga helps us better know ourselves and become more steady, her questions help us understand that when we’re clear with who we are, we can become even more unshakeable.

So as a courageous (and less constrictive!) alternative to traditional resolutions, try journaling your answers to Lorde’s questions below. Perhaps you’ll uncover a new truth that’s ready to exist through you.

4 End-of-Year Reflection Questions to Ask Yourself

Challenge yourself to write without any self-policing. Your inner editor can slow you down and cause you to stumble. This is about self-expression, not getting your grammar right. No one will read this except you so be honest. Only from your most innermost knowing can you change how you move outwardly in the world.

In freewriting style, set your timer for 5-10 minutes per question.

1. For what do you not have words yet?

2. What do you need to say? List as many things as necessary.

3. “What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?” List as many as necessary. Then write a new list tomorrow. And the day after.

4. Assume that you have been “socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition.” Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?” Answer this today. And again every day.

As for what Lorde herself learned from those questions, she wrote of the urgency of doing her own “work,” or her dharma. In her insightful way that transcends time, she left us with one more question to carry: Are you doing your work?

Consider returning to these questions throughout the year and letting them become a steady practice of svadhyaya or self-study. It’s less important to have answers to all the questions than to lean into and celebrate curiosity. Your own state of openness will lead you—and in that, there is power. With time, you might find yourself living closer to what is real and right for you in a way that’s both gentle and strong–like yoga practice itself.

Here’s to a year of living in authenticity, courageousness, and joy!

Curious to learn more about Lorde? The following books can help you explore the world through her lens:

The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde by Rima Vesely-Flad, Ph.D. (North Atlantic Books, February 2026)

The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (Norton, 2020)

The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde (Penguin Classics, 2020)