A Time to Reflect

There’s something about this time of the year…

… From the Winter Solstice we’re straight into the good ‘ol Festive Season, the close of another year and welcoming in a brand New Year.

Many use this time to map out their goals and resolutions for the year ahead. All well and good. Yet, unless we stop first to pause and reflect on the year just lived and valuable lessons learned, we risk repeating the same old thing year after year and feeling a bit rubbish about ourselves. The truth is, we can get so caught up in our fast-paced, forward looking lives that we can easily miss the jewels of wisdom our recent past was there to teach us, if we don’t pause to reflect on them. 

Taking some quiet personal time to reflect away from all the family and social commitments can be challenging at this time of the year too. Yet, if we are committed to creating a life we’re excited to get out of bed each morning for, then time to reflect can be the ultimate self-care we can gift to ourselves. It's a time investment that can reap rewards for heart and soul along our journey to evolve and grow as human beings.

Of course, you can just mull over the year gone by over a cup of tea or a glass of yer favourite tipple, curled up by yourself on the sofa. Anywhere comfortable where you can be at peace and relax will do. The key though is to make your time for reflection work for you, to really hone in on what the outgoing year has brought and taught you. An effective way to do that is to commit your reflections to paper. That’s right, get it all written down - and have fun with it too! You could use these suggestions to get you going:

• List out what went well that was personally meaningful to you from the last year. Pay attention to anything that a past version of you may not have been ready to accomplish. That’s evidence of our evolution and growth! Then ask yourself what allowed those things to happen. Often it's a combination of things and could include things like: Your focus on accomplishing something whatever it took, external support and encouragement, your attitude or mindset, being true to you, your resilience and perseverance, your gratitude and appreciation ... It's not just about celebrating your successes, though that's important too, it's about becoming conscious and aware of how far you have come and what it took for you to get there.

• List out the main things that did not go so well from the last year, focusing on things where you knew you had a degree of control for a better outcome. This is where there are lessons that we can learn from and grow from. It’s helpful to ask yourself questions and dig beyond the surface. For example: ask what could you have done differently that would have resulted in a better outcome. Then ask why you did not take those different actions. Keep digging - oftentimes we'll find that the things we did not accomplish were deeper resistances like our fears, or even that we were trying to accomplish something that was not meaningful enough to us or just not right for us. We can learn so much when we get a deeper understanding of what’s behind our resistance.

It can be tempting to be harsh on ourselves sometimes, beating ourselves up for what we did not do or did not accomplish, or for mistakes we made. Do not go there, it really serves no purpose! The truth is mistakes and stuff going awry are our guides and teachers when we’re willing to look at them and learn from them.

Here’s to our continued evolution and growth!

Much love,

Hannah x

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