The Importance of Looking Back
It is that time of year, in which, yearly reflections and yearly resolutions posts are most likely flooding your social media. While I don’t subscribe to setting lofty goals for a new year, I do take time to do a yearly reflection. Why, when our consciousness and feeds are filled with “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way” and “Wash, rinse, don’t repeat” meme’s, would I sit with the past? Because there is no greater lesson to be cultivated, than doing exactly that. As Melody Beattie expressed it best, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates vision for tomorrow.” However, if we don’t sit with the past, intentional gratitude cannot be formed, and thus, we are still walking around fragmented from the year before.
I wrote in my personal journal yesterday, “Why do I do yearly reflections? I suppose it is to digest what the year has fed us. To gain perspective of the bigger picture. To heal wounds that may have been forgotten along the journey to more demanding tasks.” We live our lives on the fastest settings we can (a generalization of course) and truly being able to sit with things like grief, pain, disappointment, and even gratitude or joy become nearly impossible. Part of living into an authentic and intentional life, is making the time to sit with everything. Yearly reflections are an amazing way of doing so. I personally keep a journal. At the end of the year, I go through month-by-month, reread what took place, and make physical note of the highlights (and honestly the low lights). When I’m finished, I summarize it all. I journal it all out. I realize and can see what needs tending to and what can then be released.
I set intentions for the year ahead, NOT resolutions. Intentions like, leaning into my motherhood more, or exploring my creativity in a specific way. I suppose I could set intentions for losing another ____ pounds or always finishing my daily “to do” list…but I have found that it doesn’t personally serve me, my family, or my community to do so. I encourage you this week, to make time for reflection and become aware of the things you shut in the closet to be addressed later…and then never found the time to do so. Let me know below if you participate in yearly reflections and, if so, how you do them.