Giving Thanks for This New Year.
This is wonderful. We have stepped into a new year. A year for beautiful possibilities.
In 2023, we had our ups and downs, right? We experienced moments that sometimes felt like we were climbing Mount Everest or K2. It was exhausting, difficult and it was hard to see through the fog. Guess what! We made it through. We made it to 2024!
In life we will always encounter some challenges and will make mistakes along the way. This is inevitable. However, within this, there are opportunities to learn. We can choose to walk around feeling down, dwell on our problems or we can choose to learn from them and keep moving. It really is our choice.
There is a poem that captures what I am speaking of in this blog. It is by Charles Swindoll titled, “Attitude.” There is a section of his poem that says, “ The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past; we can not change the fact that people will act a certain way.” He also shares this, “ The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude….I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” This poem is great because it acknowledges that life isn’t perfect but that life can still be wonderful depending on our own attitude or perception about our experiences.
When climbing our tall mountains, we have to take a moment to say, “ I forgive myself” or “That was a hard one but I know now what I can do next time for a healthier and better outcome.” You can also simply say, “ What did I learn in that situation? What did I learn about myself? If these questions don’t work for you, develop your own healthy questions that can move you passed dwelling too long on hurt feelings or disappointments.
Have you ever been in a toxic relationship and then you finally broke it off or they broke if off with you? Did you spend time blaming the other person, blaming yourself or simply feeling miserable about it all? Why? Did it help, ever?
What if you didn’t do any of that but instead acknowledged things didn’t work out and then moved on, using time to work on you. Easier said than done, right? Probably yes, but it can be done. You can choose to move on to learn about yourself, your patterns and get yourself closer to happiness again. You can learn ways to enjoy yourself again without the weight of dwelling on past mistakes or challenges.
Seek professional help from a mental health professional if you tried managing on your own with no improvement. They can offer some guidance towards healing and help explore treatment options that are a good fit for you, based what you say you need.
Have a wonderful New Year!
