What we’ve done so far

In this month’s blog posts we’ve been talking about bringing the year 2022 to close through reflection and intention.  

The first week of December I asked you to swipe quickly through your phone photos to get a dream sequence blur of the moments and screenshots and random things you captured digitally over the year. I gave you categories to consider: your physical self, thinking self, emotional self, and physical self.  

Last week we talked about using the three qualities of nature from the Yoga philosophy, called the gunas, to continue your 2022 contemplation. Rajas, characterized by action, movement, energetic endeavor, attachment. Tamas, characterized by inaction, disinterest, a disinclination towards constructive activity. And sattva, characterized by clarity, wisdom, non-attachment, happiness, and peace.  

Now for the harder stuff

This week as you reflect, consider the hardships you’ve gone through this past year. Try to maintain some healthy distance while remembering these challenges, almost as if you were describing a plot point in a movie. There will be time to feel into it, but for now, I wonder if there are a couple bullet points you can identify while remaining non-attached to the emotions that might arise as you remember. Acknowledge the emotions, note them to yourself, and let them pass. It’s not yet the time to get into it deeply. We’re just taking rough notes.  

Is any of it over?

Then look at your list of hardships or challenges. Some of them might still be in progress, and you can set those aside. Can you identify any challenges you’ve met this past year that are now over?

Sometimes echoes of the hard times linger, more like a bruise than an open wound.  It can be hard to emotionally realize that the difficulty is behind you without being intentional about it. To recognize that actually, it’s not happening to you anymore. That you can let it be done, let it be over, mark it as complete. This is how we can clear the slate (as much as possible) to start 2023 with less burden to bear.  

“Completion”

In next week’s post I’ll walk you through a few simple steps in a process I like to use called “Completion”. It’s meant to help us do the mental and emotional work of putting those things that are over truly behind us, marking them as complete in order to free up space for the unknown life experiences and projects yet to come.  

Ending on a positive note

For now, let’s end by purposefully turning our focus towards positive feelings. Can you recall a particularly pleasant memory from 2022? Where were you when it happened? Were you alone or with company? Engage your five senses as you remember. What did you see and hear? How did the air smell? Were there any tastes involved? Do you remember the temperature or the feeling of your clothes or elements against your skin? Linger with the feelings that come up for a minute or more, then on with your day! 

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