The thing that I most enjoy about this time of year, is the opportunity to put the past year behind me armed with wisdom gained that will serve me in the year to come.
I have a very easy process that I follow, that allows me to reflect in a constructive way. This year I started a little early by listing 101 things that I had achieved, or experiences I was grateful for from the year. That was fun, but it took me a while to come up with so many. Here I’d like to share an easier way to put the year to bed:
3 things that worked for me in 2021
- The thing that has been most powerful for me this year has been mastering surrender. With my declining health following the vaccines, I had little choice but to let go. When I fully embraced it, I realized just how powerful surrender is. In fact, it reminded me that my original recovery came as a result of being relaxed and effortless and going with the flow, which are all qualities that result from surrender. This year the more fully I surrendered to what was, the more I let go of any form of resistance, pressure or striving, the more I started to get a glimpse of improvement.
- Although this falls under the category of surrender, I found that letting go of even the most consistent of my self-help practices was what I needed at times. Since I first learned tai chi during my first bout of ME/CFS, I’ve practiced just about every morning. But this year I found many times when doing it would have meant resistance or striving. And somewhat surprisingly, I found that when it feltlike I needed to let it go, I didn’t suffer for not doing it. In fact, I grew in confidence that I was optimizing my use of energy and giving myself the best chance to improve.
- Often when I crash and my brain chemistry is affected, I find myself in a kind of flat joyless emotional state. I realized that this was a state of emotional disconnect and really wasn’t helpful, especially when there was so much of it this year. When I noticed myself in that state, I would remind myself to offer myself compassion for my distorted brain chemistry. I found that being in a state of compassion was a much lighter place to be, than in that heavy state of being switched off.
3 things that I achieved
- I kept my membership programme going all year, running a support group and a coaching group every week, creating new modules and turning them into mini-courses
- I ran two free 5-day masterclasses
- I finished a paint by numbers painting that took 9 months of 20 minutes at a time
3 things that I’m grateful for
- The lovely members of my programme, who are such a delight to work with and have formed such a supportive community
- My lovely holidays this year, my parents and friend for taking me, and supporting me with all the adaptations I had to make.
- You, for reading my blog and giving me a sense of purpose!
3 things that I’m leaving behind me
- Expecting any improvements in my health to be slow
- Being too focused on growing my business instead of enjoying my business
- Disconnecting to get through, I choose to fully embrace discomfort instead and raise my vibration with self-compassion
I like to finish this process with a commitment:
As I leave 2021 behind me, I joyfully let go of all that did not serve me and open myself up to a new year full of opportunities for fresh healing, growing peace, expanding love, profuse gratitude, flowing abundance and blissful joy.
To make it really easy for you, I’ve created a pdf version HERE which you can download, print and fill in
Next week I’ll share my intention setting process, a much gentler and more effective process than setting new years resolutions.
Image courtesy of silverwings at yayimages.com
