New Year — New You: Give Yourself Rest for a Change!
“Old things will come to pass, and the new life will come to be.”
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“Old things will come to pass, and the new life will come to be.”
What will pass away?
What will come to be?
Will we ever know?
What do you believe?
What would you say about 2017?
What would you have to say about 2018?
Let’s take a moment to take a look back.
What gifts were you given?
What gifts did you receive?
What challenges did you face?
What obstacles did you overcome?
What sadness did you incur?
Did you lose anyone close to you?
Did you gain anyone into your life in the year of 2017?
What joy do you remember as you reflect upon the year?
What memories did you make?
· With friends?
· With family?
What moments from 2017 will you never forget?
What memories do you want to forever hold on to?
- I now give you permission to take 5 -
Take a few moments to close your eyes and look back at the last 12 months, the last 364 days and reflect on what you saw, on what you heard, on what you experienced.
Come back once you give yourself a few minutes…
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You back? How’d that go?
Did you give yourself enough time to think?
Did you just skip the time of reflection and keep on reading?
I don’t blame you, taking time to look back can seem pointless and feel unproductive. But, I bet if you give yourself just a few moments, a few moments to give yourself a break, it will be worth your time.
Perhaps you took the time to reflect and became overjoyed with ample memories of bliss sunshine and rainbows!
Perhaps you didn’t.
Perhaps you looked back and hit a wall…
and so you turned away and came back to finish reading…
Trust me, your secret is safe with me.
Did you turn away from looking back at the last year due to some of the hardships you faced, and you simply don’t want to ever remember them?
If there’s things from 2017 you’d rather just forget, trust me I’m right there with you. I understand where you’re coming from.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
But, let us take the time to work even harder to remember the good things.
- Remember the barriers we broke down for ourselves
- Remember how we have grown to learn new things
- Remember how we have seen a whole year’s worth of sights
- Remember the many people we have lived life with, and even those random passersby that you spoke with for maybe a fraction of a second
Is there good in any of these things?
Is there something to make you smile?
Is there something that gives you hope?
Is there something that grants you joy?
Hold on to that. Yes, hold on to that!
Indeed, grab hold of THAT exact memory in your past, and grasp it with a clenched fist to carry with you today as you take some time for reflection on last year’s history.
So, What happened in 2017?!
Seriously, what really happened?
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Can you name a few things?
I bet you can!
The bullets above were not a typo, nor were they a page break.
Take some time to reflect and think of five, yes just 5, different things you can remember from 2017!
Let’s try this again…
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What were you able to accomplish in 2017?
What was your GREATEST accomplishment?
What is something you did that you had never done before?
What places did you see that you had never seen before?
Did you travel to anywhere new?
Did you have a big move?
Did you go through a huge transition in your life?
- Are you currently walking through this transition?
Did you gain anything of significance in 2017?
Did you lose anything of significance?
What is one thing you wanted to gain?
What is one thing you wanted to lose?
What will you pursue in the New Year?
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
What will you hope to leave behind you?
Do you have anything you need to let go of?
What will you take advantage of in 2018?
Let’s be proactive for a second…
What will you take more to do in the future year?
What do you need to make more time for?
Perhaps, who will you need to make more time for in 2018?
Who would you like to make more time for in 2018?
Maybe it’s your wife?
Maybe it’s your husband?
Your brother,
Your sister,
Your mom and dad?
Maybe it’s your kids?
Maybe it’s YOU?
Yourself?
Yourself?
Wait, me…? Or You!?
Now I’m confused…
I mean you!
Yes, YOU!!
The person you probably never consider, the person you probably never make time for — and yes it is okay for you to make time for YOURself!
Certainly, I’ll say if you’re anything like me, you need to make time for yourself.
So, how do you plan on doing this?
“The last person we ever think to take care of is ourselves”
Do you think this quote reigns true for you?
Let me ask you this…
Where did your joy come from in 2017?
Are you able to plan ahead to include more opportunities for joy in 2018?
Where did your pain, frustration, and hardship come from in 2017?
Are you able to plan ahead to remove this pain, frustration, and potential future hardship in 2018?
In what ways were you able to find rest in 2017?
How will you plan to find rest in 2018?
Will you be proactive and schedule your times of rest in month to month? How about a more frequent time of rest, on a weekly basis?
Now, what would it look like for you to even just schedule a simple 5–10min time for rest each day that you develop into a routine for your day?
How refreshing would that be?
How encouraging would that be for you?
How much would this ground you and hold you in comfort, present you with clarity, a moment of bliss to take care of yourself and breathe a little easier?
Wait… to take care of yourself. Yes I said to take care of yourself!
“But I’m too busy already. I don’t have time to ‘take care of myself…’
Usually the story goes a little like this…
”I have to drive to the store, then grab the kids from practice and run on home to make dinner — I think they said they wanted pasta tonight… ugh I don’t know if we have all the ingredients, I better grab some more from the store actually — well anyways and then after I clean up from dinner I have to make sure the laundry for tomorrow’s game is all ready to go for the kids in the morning….“
And then the person decides to finally breathe.
*BREATH*
*Sigh*
*droop of face and eyes*
*Look of exhaustion and of slight desperation*
Then, I’m just standing there with even my excellent listening ears feeling a bit overwhelmed and crazed out, wondering how in the world we allow ourselves to take on so much every single day?
How long can we keep it up?
How long can we last without taking care of ourselves?
I’m guilty of it myself! Don’t get me wrong, it is not easy!
At this point in my life, I know I need to schedule specific weekends or times throughout the week to take 5 minutes to escape into a book, visit a new coffee shop, or simply go for a walk (when the weather is nice!) to refresh myself and help me reconnect to what life is all about.
I think we all too often get ourselves all caught up in the cyclical nature of our day-to-day lives, overwhelmed and exhausted by the end of the day.
Disconnected from our hearts.
Disconnected from our joy.
Disconnected from ourselves.
Disconnected from others.
Not even able to give someone else the time of day, to sit and rest with one another and look each other in the eye and ask those REAL world questions.
Furthermore, I bet we take even less time to allow ourselves the opportunity to look in the mirror, to close our eyes and reflect upon our lives, where we’ve been and where we want to go….
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Who were you last year?
Who are you today?
Who do you want to be tomorrow?
“There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.”
- Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
This might feel like an uncomfortable conversation at this point. That’s okay.
Don’t get too nauseated. It’ll pass, just like 2017, I promise.
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Do you feel stuck on a wheel like a hamster, not getting anywhere…?
What can we work on today to stop the spokes in our wheel?
No wonder we can’t ever seem to catch our breath if we’re always running on this wheel,
looking ahead
and just running and running,
running and running,
running and running,
and running, without ever getting anywhere we want to go…
So, what if we take this time to stop our wheel for a minute.
Let’s think about how we can reset?
Given more freedom in 2018,
Where will you go?
What will you see?
Who will you meet?
What will you do?
How will you implement freedom into your life in 2018 to allow yourself all of the above?
I’M SERIOUS.
Where will you put freedom in your life in 2018?
This may be one of the best things you can do for yourself.
This may be the best thing you can do for all of those you care so much about, and certainly it will be the best thing you can do for your future self to take better care of everyone else as you so want to do.
You deserve it.
They deserve it.
We deserve it.
But, honestly… you know deep down, if you’re honest with yourself, you need it.
You need it more now than ever.
2017 went by in a flash.
You deserve to rest.
You deserve to breathe.
And let me be the first to say that you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of someone else.
What do they tell you in an airplane in the situation of an emergency?
When the oxygen masks fall in front of you,
1st, grab the oxygen mask for yourself, and then help your neighbor.
Your life may not feel like an emergency situation right now,
But it may before too long… let’s be honest most emergency situations aren’t scratched into our calendars right between those pressing meetings and important life events.
Maybe your life does feel like an emergency right now…
In that case I’m going to tell you, direct you, command you,
GRAB THE MASK for yourself.
Grab the mask for yourself in 2018.
Give yourself the best chance to not just survive, but also thrive in 2018.
Be proactive about planning times of rest, times of rejuvenation in your day, your week, and reconnect with all you value most in your life.
Take time to yourself.
Take time to breathe.
Breathe. Just breathe.
If you need a moment to yourself right now, plug in your headphones and listen to this song now.
Take care of yourself in 2018, give yourself some rest for a change.
“Until He Returns, Or He Calls Me Home, I Will Rest, I Will Remain, I Will Breathe.”