Happy day of turning the calendar page.
What if this year we do NOT do a year in review? OR a look ahead?
Kinda radical, really.
It is the norm to take stock of the past year, and to set intentions for the upcoming one. That is not a bad ritual or wrong at all. If it is helpful to your HEART, go for it. If instead it clogs you up with mind chatter, comparison, guilt, regret, or anxiety, then ditch it and do something different.
Right now, my heart feels like doing something different.
My year in review is this: There were a lot of challenges, a lot of surprises, a lot of gloriously wonderful things. Joys and heartaches and all the in-betweens. There. Done.
My year ahead is this: There will be a lot of challenges, a lot of surprises, a lot of gloriously wonderful things. Joys and heartaches and all the in-betweens. There. Done.
Inhale.
Exhale.
What if, instead of pondering the past or the future in great detail, I focus each day on just being in this day. Just being in this day. Just being in this day.
The whole calendar thing is arbitrary anyway. Gregorian calendar, lunar calendar, whatever calendar, we humans like to mark time. For the most part, a way to measure time is helpful. A coffee/tea date at 10am without knowing what 10am is would not happen. You get my drift. But this time of year, the passing of time, a whole new year ahead, a whole year in the rear-view mirror, oh the pressure. A “year” is a big ole chunk of a whole lotta lotta.
My heart and my mind and my body are jointly sinking into the idea of just being here in this day. Just being here in this day. Just being here in this day.
Just being.
Here.
In THIS day.
Sounds simple.
In fact, it’s a tall order.
This new experiment will require constant remembering of “OH YEAH, take a breath, be here in this moment right now.”
As I type, I am not here in the now. My thoughts are of this past morning, and of the week ahead. None of which actually exist. The moments of these past couple hours, the lovely and the not, are gone. POOF. What is to come this week is truly unknown. Can I bring my attention back to here, this task?
Can I feel my fingers on the keyboard? Can I hear the sound of the clacks as my fingers type type type? Can I hear the music in the background. Can I smell the chili in the crockpot? Can I feel my butt and back on the chair? Can I feel my sweater’s softness?
Can I catch my breath?
Really catch my breath?
As I pause to inhale and notice it and take a deeper inhale, I feel tears well up.
Can I release the tension in my body?
Can I see that in this day already so far I have experienced challenges, surprises, gloriously wonderful things?
Inhale.
Exhale.
Each day is a lifetime.
My mind is now hurtling forward again. Gotta do this, gotta do that.
I make a quick list. My mind feels better. Now my attention goes back to my heartbeat and my breath. I wonder if I could bring back my beingness to heartbeat and breath and calm if I did not make a list? Hmmm.
Inhale. Exhale.
I see that just being here in this day, each day as it comes, is a grand experiment. Such an experiment feels like the perfect “new year” thing for me to do. (Irony, yes.)
But I do not make a strict proclamation: “For the next 365 days (oh wait! 2024 is leap year! 366 days!), I shall do THIS!”
It feels gentler to say “TODAY, I will bring my attention back to the present moment as often as I catch myself being elsewhere.” Perhaps a sticky note reminder here and there throughout the house will help me as I entertain this experiment going forward.
I have many mindfulness practices in my arsenal and teach stress-relief techniques. Maybe it’s time for a workshop. I am the who receives the most benefit from any class I teach.
We shall see.
Ideas are firing.
Happy new year to you. Happy new day. One at a time.
One.
At.
A.
Time.
Peace and love and ease and grace,
Kelly
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