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(Update in 2020: I wrote this post originally in 2018 and have now included a video to reference all that has happened this past year, although the content in this article is still relevant. I’ve also created a new course launching in January 2021 that incorporates these questions and moves into visioning your best life for the new year. You can read more about that course by clicking here.) The spiritual practice of reflection is one of my important regular practices, especially as I complete a cycle. With reflection, you get to see where you started at the beginning of the cycle and you witness how you’ve been transformed. In my last blog post, I mentioned two different ways you can use to reflect on this past year. One way is to do a chronological review, and another way to reflect this year is to examine the different areas of your life. You could read more about those two types of reviews here. I’ve put together six key questions to help you reflect more deliberately and to help you honor and celebrate this past year. For the last blog post, one of the questions was “What surprised you this past year?” Here are two more questions to add to the list. How did you grow this past year? Thinking through each month of this past year and in different areas of your life, how did you grow? One of the best ways to acknowledge growth is to uncover the lessons you gained from your experiences. Whether you had challenges or accomplishments, you most likely picked up a few key insights and were transformed by your experiences. If you can, write some of these lessons down. Ask yourself how you’ve grown as a result of these experiences. How are you different now than when you started out the year? I asked one of my clients recently about how he grew since he started working with me. In the beginning, he said he felt as if he were in a slumber. He wasn’t clear where he wanted to direct his energy, and he didn’t feel particularly enthused. Within a few weeks of working together, he realized he was able to tap into his own passion and to say yes to the inspiration that his heart was naturally guiding him to experience more fully. Now, he feels more purposeful and in flow with the rhythm of Life itself. Purpose and flow are good indicators that something is working in your life. This leads to the next question to help you honor and celebrate this past year. What made you come alive this year? As you reflect on this past year, where do you feel the juice? What made you feel fully present in the moment? Aliveness is a quality that speaks to your own uniqueness. You are a unique expression of life. You show up in the world in only the way that you can. As a result of your uniqueness, your joy is also unique to you. When you recognize what brings you joy and that feeling of aliveness, you open up your awareness to a greater understanding of what brings you meaning in the world. Where did you feel an energy and zest to life? The stirrings in your heart are signposts to the real you. For these last weeks of this year, I’ll be sharing three more questions that help you to honor and celebrate this last year. Keep a journal with your responses to these questions. They’ll help you as you’ll eventually be looking into next year. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. (Update in 2020: I wrote this post originally in 2018 and have now included a video to reference all that has happened this past year, although the content in this article is still relevant. I’ve also created a new course launching in January 2021 that incorporates these questions and moves into visioning your best life for the new year. You can read more about that course by clicking here.)
With this year drawing to a close, there’s a natural tendency to reflect on all that has happened this past year. As part of my own yearly practice, I ask myself a set of questions that help me to honor and celebrate the past year.
(This article, and the three following ones I will share with you, contain these very questions I ask myself at the end of every year. I encourage you to join me by setting aside some time every week to contemplate and journal your answers to these questions.) Here’s one of the key questions: As you reflect back on this past year, what surprised you? You probably started off this past January with a set of intentions and knowing that certain things would happen. Maybe you had a particular goal to accomplish. Perhaps you had a travel destination planned. As usually happens, though, surprises emerge. Unplanned events, major upsets, significant delights…all of these are elements in the cycle of Life itself. So…what surprised you? There are a few different ways to reflect on your surprises. One way is to do a chronological review. Bring your mind back to January and recollect the events that happened in your life. Then move to February and so on. You can look through your calendar as you do this if you need some help remembering all the things that happened. Another way to contemplate your surprises during this past year is to examine the different areas of your life. These include: love, relationships, career, home, creative expression, wealth, finances, health, spirituality, service, community, travel, self-care, education, politics, world affairs, and many others. You can make a diagram of these words and see what happened in each of these areas of life. As you reflect on all the surprises that showed up for you this past year, I invite you to dig a little deeper and answer these questions:
Surprises are one of the great reminders that Life unfolds in ways that you might not imagine. There are infinite possibilities always revealing. Lastly, see if you can uncover a sense of gratitude for these surprises, particularly for those surprises that may not feel so good. If anything, the “not-so-good” surprises create an opening for you to respond and to show up in a greater, more loving way. For the next three weeks, I’ll share other questions that will help you to reflect on this past year. If you can, please save your responses and recollections because we’ll be building upon what you came up with here. Abundant Blessings and Namaste.  One of my clients is a small business owner, and we spent some time reflecting on the past few months.
My client Jeff (not his real name) shared how many fellow business owners in his area of work had shut down their businesses. But Jeff found that his business was doing okay. I asked him why he thought his business was still open and others were closed. Jeff responded by sharing with me a story. A month or two into the lockdowns due to the pandemic, Jeff happened to run into one of his colleagues Mary. Mary told Jeff that she was depressed. She spent most of her waking hours watching the news, feeling like her whole world was falling apart. She felt clueless about how to keep her business going in this new reality because everything she had been doing all these years was no longer working. She told her friend Jeff that she was thinking of closing up her shop for good. Jeff told Mary, “You have to stop thinking like this. And stop watching the news! You’re going to have to let go of how things used to be, because things aren’t working the same way anymore. Even the people who used to be doing well in our industry are now scrambling. You can make things change for the better. But first, you have to believe that things can be better. And if you want things to be different, you have to be different. Who are you called to be in this new environment?” I remarked to Jeff how wise he was, and Jeff himself was shocked at his own positivity and insights, because looking at the glass as half-full was something new for Jeff too. But I knew that Jeff wasn’t just spouting some niceties to his friend. Jeff had been focusing on his own personal growth these past couple of years. He'd been changing who he was to match the kind of life and world he wanted to create. And his life and business were direct evidence that he was adapting who he was to this new and changing environment, while remaining true to himself. Jeff’s story reminded me of the fable of the oak tree and the reed. ** One day, this huge mighty oak tree spotted a reed nearby and struck up a conversation. The oak tree noticed that whenever a small wind would pass by, the reed would bend to the whim and the direction of the wind. The oak tree laughed and made fun of the reed for not being strong and mighty, and for always bending to whichever way the wind blew. But the reed remained quiet and didn’t respond. Then, it so happened that a major windstorm came with such a force that it snapped the oak tree in two. The reed, though it thrashed here and there in the storm, survived the winds. When it was all over, the reed stood strong while the oak tree had fallen. ** I bring up this fable because there are times in life where you could ask yourself, are you more like the oak tree or like the reed? Where in your life are you perhaps more like the oak tree, being more rigid and stuck in old ideas of how things are “supposed” to be? If something isn’t working for you, there might be things that you’re doing that are stuck in old patterns, habits and behaviors. This might look like not working out anymore because your gym is closed. Or it might look like trying to do your work as business as usual, even though the working world overall has drastically changed. Instead of being rigid like the mighty oak tree, where in your life can you be more like the reed, and allow more flexibility? If your gym is closed, what are other kinds of activities you can do to get your body moving? (Bonus points to you if you can think of activities that are fun and make you feel more alive!) With work, maybe take a look around and ask yourself how you can show up differently and be of greater service to the people around you? What’s one new thing you can do to show up differently in the world, that’s aligned with the vision of who you want to be and the world you want to create? Take the story of Jeff and Mary as a lesson for your own life. Do you want to be more like the oak tree, or do you want to be more like the reed? In the end, you get to choose. And choose. And choose. Every action you take can be a new choice. Every day you can choose anew. Who are you called to be today? Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Sign me up to receive the free newsletterPopular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. |
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