I’m starting off with a little food for thought as we take the first few steps into the new year. To help you be aware of what you carry forward within you.

During the last few weeks of December, as people reflected on the year, I noticed a common thread in the way some people talked about it. I heard it described as a waste, a nuisance, a pain in the butt. I read an article yesterday describing 2020 as a garbage dump of a year. I even saw a Christmas card with a dumpster on the front and 2020 thrown into it. But what caught my attention more was what I felt as I heard the words or saw the images. It was that sandpaper on the soul feeling. And of course, I was curious to find out what was going on there, to understand it. So I asked for clarity and here’s what I got.

Yes, it was a challenging year. People got sick and passed away, we had to figure out how to live and keep moving forward during a pandemic, along with the social and political changes that were happening. People felt and are still feeling angry, sad, overwhelmed and a bunch of things that aren’t fun to feel. Given all the change we’re experiencing, it’s natural to feel those things. Be honest with yourself about how you feel. Part of your experience here in this body is to experience different emotions and figure out how to deal with them. But as you feel these different emotions, remember, sometimes the biggest challenges bring the biggest growth. Last year provided a chance for some BIG growth!

In anything you experience, whether it feels good, bad or somewhere in between, you do have a choice in how you view that experience. Seeing the year as a waste gets in the way of seeing the bigger picture, of seeing the lesson and the opportunity within it, to learn and to grow from it. It can also keep you stuck in the emotions of that experience.

As I’m writing this, I am reminded of a particular romantic relationship. After we broke up, I felt like I had wasted my time and energy on this guy. Over time, the anger and the hurt simmered down. But as soon as a memory came up or I talked about it, I felt that anger and hurt boil up inside me. At some point as I was doing some healing work, I was able to see how that relationship helped me learn things about myself and a pattern I was repeating in romantic relationships. From there, I was able to let go of that hurt and anger. Now if I do think about that relationship and guy, I actually feel grateful for what I gained. That feels a heck of a lot better than how I used to feel about it!

And now I pose this to you… how do you view last year? Can you see it as the glass half empty or half full? If you see it as half full, what did you learn, how did it help you grow? And if you see it as half empty, are you willing to change that perspective in order to see the bigger picture?

And you know, the beauty of it all (or is it irony?) is that either way, either perspective, you’re still learning. It’s just that one is just more enjoyable than the other! And that in itself is a whole nother lesson!