If you were to file away your ‘Life Experience Records’ (as per your perception) every December into a folder called ‘The Current Year’ what name would you choose for your 2020? What theme transpired? Which waves are you still riding wrapping up your 2020? Which waves will likely take you into your 2021?
How have you been Feeling. Your. Life. this year? What were your Struggles and Miracles? How did you choose to use your lockdown time and respond to ‘virus worries’? Understanding of what is happening in our external world is only a part of the picture of our perception and it is almost always immediate. How we feel after we ‘took in’ a particular external experience is a totally different matter. It really takes time for the Soul to “catch up”, that is if you create a space for it to happen in the first place.
Reacting, tiredness, worry and distractions are a default
Life demands a lot of reacting. We are expected to react to other people’s needs, events outside of our reach and to our direct responsibilities. We can’t help but react to the news and other peoples’s dramas. We have other people’s expectations on our time and energy. We are also generally expected to be fit, beautiful, positive and always ‘on call’.
We get tired. Humans always got tired after intense days filled with struggles to survive. But now we get tired in a way humans never did when they led a simple life. We get tired mentally (too many choices to make; too much social media to get entangled in) and emotionally (we react to the news, trends, other people’s problems).
We worry. We worry equally about our own tomorrow (over which we have some control) and about what is happening in the country on the other side of the globe (over which we have no control).
We get distracted easily. World events and our virtual friends’s problems (over which we have no control) so easily override our own immediate needs and our life’s direction (over which we have but sometimes don’t want to take control) that when we are tired, worried and operate in a reactive mode it’s far easier to get sucked into the far away drama than to clearly see (and respond to) ‘what is’, right in front of us.
In fact life demands reacting, managing our energy, mental health and distractions to prevent numbing tiredness and disconnection so much so that unless we specifically choose to behave proactively, set goals, check in with ourselves, track our progress – tapping into our deep needs and wishes, creating time to just be present to feel. our. life – our life can easily go by without us noticing.
Most of us don’t choose to be actively accountable to somebody who will gently but firmly and repeatedly remind us about our. life.
Then we get to the end of our day/month/year and we start wondering what this time has been about? Sometimes we don’t remember. Sometimes we do but wish we won’t.
Feeling. Your. Life.
Feeling. our. life. last time for us as humans probably happened when we still gathered around the fire every evening in a close knit community and relied on harvests, candles, spoken stories, handwritten letters delivered by simple post and knew all our neighbours.
Life was hard but simple and revolved within physiological boundaries of day and night.
Handwritten letters remembered the warmth of our hands and may be had a lovingly dried flower enclosed or at times had a trace of occasional tears.
We also knew for certain if we were in Times of War or Times of Peace.
All of these can now be read about in any fairytale.
Humanity aside, when was the last time your remember you.felt.your.life?
Take a moment this December to reflect on this remarkable journey which 2020 has been and ‘record’ a little of your personal take on it: to remember, ‘digest’ and integrate the year for your own personal history. Every note we make today becomes our absolutely treasured personal history with every next year of our life.
Sure, 2020 may have been a wild ride globally but what it has been for you personally? What was the main theme? What has been a daily occurrence? What were your Soul’s needs? Where were your Struggles? Where were your Miracles?
Five to ten years on, 2020 will be history and the likelihood is we won’t remember much from our.own.life. apart from ‘2020 was the year when a global pandemic was declared and everyone got stuck at home for better or worse’. In terms of our individual life experience, an unusual, seemingly long and trying as it might have been 2020 is just another year.
The only common denominator would probably be ‘stretched to our limits’: how did this play out for you personally?
Some highly organised people I have been lucky to know habitually spend December in a deep reflection on the year which has been and then take their wishes and needs from the depth of their Soul to paper – turning them into realistic goals and ‘New Year Resolutions’. If you are not one of these people I’d encourage you to try – right now, still in this whirlwind of 2020 – and keep the habit.
- How would you like to conclude your 2020?
- What are your wishes or a theme for 2021?
Subscribe to Cafe Self Newsletter to download a helpful guide ‘Reflections, Struggles and Miracles of your 2020’ and create time to Feel. Your. Life.
- If you like starting with an empty page note your thoughts and feelings on 2020 with Stream Writing
- If you’d like some facilitation to get going our December’s 2020 Questions to the Soul for our Newsletter subscribers will help: ‘Reflections, Struggles and Miracles of your 2020’
Reflect, create and enjoy 🙂
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