Taking time to reflect

Christmas is a busy time of preparations.  The year is wrapping up, work projects are being finished, the kids are almost on holidays.  Family will be visiting, there’s cooking and shopping and cleaning to be done.  Travel plans to make.  It can be hectic to say the least!

In the middle of all these goings on, especially the hazy, lazy week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, it’s also a great time to look back over the past year and reflect on all that’s happened: progress made, losses and heart ache, fun times and laughs, quiet moments.  Throughout the year we can be so focused on where we’re going and what’s next on the list that we don’t give ourselves the chance to acknowledge all we’ve achieved.  Or to recognise the mental and physical break we so desperately need.

Over this Christmas and New Year period, take some time to reflect on the year gone by.  You might like to write about it in a journal – getting stuff out of your head and onto paper can be so powerful and bring home so many ah-ha moments and insights.  Sometimes by simply making a list of all you’ve done – what worked and what didn’t, what was fantastic and what was simply awful – puts life in perspective.  You can make better decisions about what you’d like to drop from your life and what you’d like to build on. 

Don’t be hard on yourself – go about your reflection with kindness and compassion for yourself and those around you.  Everyone does the best they can with what they have and know at the time – including you!

What did you love about this year?
What went really well?
What didn’t go so good?  What would you like to let go of and not take into 2020?
What would you like to acknowledge yourself for?

This Christmas – celebrate you and all that you’ve done this year.
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Have a great week, and a beautiful Christmas.
Gillian
xx

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