“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
― Mary Oliver
And with another blink of the eye, the curtain is closing on 2018.
These past few days after Christmas have been luxuriously unscheduled and unstructured. This takes some getting used to after the fullness of 2018.
Like moving from focused attention training (where we use the breath as an anchor point during meditation) to open awareness meditation (where we allow the mind to be completely free), this unstructured time feels like circuit training for the brain. Although we often wish for more free time, an open schedule presents its own challenges, its own opportunities for practice.
When that square on the calendar is empty, what does it take to feel fulfilled at the end of the day? This is where values, intention, and motivation reveal themselves.
And this is where I realize how much I’ve benefitted from my Search Inside Yourself teacher training this year. In learning to teach the skills that help us identify our core values, set intention, and deepen motivation, I have strengthened those skills in myself. Regardless of how scheduled or free my day is, even if much of it has been spent walking slowly, looking out the window, and not “doing” anything, I go to bed with a sense of fulfilled gratitude. Simply “being” is a joyful act.
Three Big Lessons From 2018
Between a lot of time with extended family over the past several weeks and connecting with many more people in general this year during my SIY teacher training and program facilitation, so many lessons have bubbled to the surface over the past twelve months. Here are three big ones:
- People are new each time we meet them. Every experience influences, so we are never the same person we were yesterday, let alone last month or last year. I have found it rewarding to try to meet family and old friends with fresh eyes, stepping away from previous assumptions and autopilot responses. Curiosity feeds gratitude and joy.
- Allow yourself to be seen in your own newness, take some risks, speak up with an open, compassionate heart. Pull the curtain back on your own beautiful self and invite others to see who you have become, how you have grown and blossomed. Speaking from personal experience, this is scary as hell but extraordinarily liberating.
- As humans, we all have blind spots. My teaching experience this year has taught me that I have some blind spots with respect to race, equity, and white privilege. I’ve learned to not turn away, but to turn toward this realization. I’ve learned to hold a space in the midst of painful territory rather than try to fix it or make it go away. I’ve learned to keep my eyes on the big picture, knowing that this moment in history is but one tiny pinprick on the continuum and I have the power to be part of the solution by simply allowing previously suppressed voices to be heard.
Journaling has been a powerful tool in processing these and other reflections. I’ve strengthened my journaling practice this year by going back and reviewing what I wrote. Here are few nuggets…
Pulled from my journal over the past few months:
“I can, indeed, survive the uncomfortable spaces.”
“My heart is stronger. It’s not armor, just stronger.”
“May I have a positive impact on the world.”
“I want to connect with joy in creativity, not just see it as ‘work.’ ‘Work’ as an idea feels heavy. But ‘purpose’ doesn’t. Creativity is part of my purpose, as a parent, business owner, artist, and teacher.”
Goals Report Card
Looking back on the goals I set at the beginning of the year, I feel pretty good…
My 2018 Goals
- Help more people cultivate their own mindfulness practice. CHECK!
- Attend a residential silent meditation retreat to deepen my practice. CHECK!
- Strengthen my mindfulness facilitation skills through additional training. CHECK!
- Grow my business and my circles so that I can help more people access mindfulness to live and work more skillfully. CHECK!
- Improve my mindful listening skills. CHECK!
- Take at least one photography class. CHECK!
- Expand my Damselwings Photography collection at https://www.damselwingsphotography.com/. CHECK!
- Place my wall art in healthcare facilities to provide calming, joyful, healing energy. CHECK!
- Devote more time to mindful political action (I have found JenHoffman’s Weekly Checklist for Americans of Conscience to be a thoughtful, balanced, and efficient resource for this). CHECK!
- Unplug from social and other media one day a week. NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.
- Maintain work and family balance, including regular date nights. CHECK!
- Play more games. CHECK!
- Grow my garden (with Apollo’s cooperation). GOAL NOT MET. Travel and other priorities kept me from the garden. She forgives me.
- Reboot my composting habits. NOT PERFECT, BUT GOOD ENOUGH.
- Maintain my accountability buddy projects. CHECK!
My new goals list for 2019 will be coming up next week. What about you? Have you reflected on the past year? Are you giving some thought to how you’d like to live life to its fullest in the coming year? I’d love to hear about it!
To support you on your journey, I’m happy to announce that the first 30-Day Mindfulness Meditation Challenge of the year will be starting on February 1, 2019. Registration is open! To learn more and sign up, click here.
Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and interest in my work. I couldn’t be more grateful! Have a safe and joyful New Year’s celebration!
