As a new year begins, my thoughts have turned to this interesting concept of counting time…. seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. The flow of time gathers speed as we get older. A year once felt like an eternity when we were young now speeds ahead like the a bullet train. We wish away time to then wish for it to stand still.
Practicing mindfulness allows us to develop our ability to be present and be mindful of moments in time. Mindful remembrance of our lives allows us to reflect and, momentarily, suspend time and rejoice in moments in our lives.
Finding ways to have moments of positive Mindful Reflection can support mental health and wellbeing; allowing you to enjoy and re-enjoy moments in time.
Daily/Weekly Journals allow for frequent moments of solitary reflection. The entires do not have to be long and can be just sentence fragments or words. This does not matter. What matters is the giving yourself space to be in the moment. If you have trouble waddling in the negatives in life, make the journal a “positive only” journal so that you can start to develop a habit of positivity, no matter how small the positive may be.
Take Five– At the end of each day, as you ready yourself for bed, count down five good things that have happened in the day. Give yourself a few minutes to reflect on those positives and allow yourself to smile at those moments.
Remembrance Jar– This is a great one to do as a family or as an individual. Get a jar and stuff it with tickets, receipts, notes and wristbands from all the things you and your family have been up to during the year. At the end of the year, empty it all out and talk about the year just gone and all the memories it has generated.
You may choose to do this at the start of a new year and is a great activity of Mindful Reflection to do on New Year’s Day. However, it can be started at any time; a birthday, an anniversary or other momentous occasion can serve as the beginning and end of a year of reflection.
Mindful Reflection allows us to take hold of time and be positively in the moment… over and over again.
Let a Mindfully Positive New Year begin!
- Special thanks to Bryony Turford, (@PriScigeeks) for sharing the idea and picture of her Remembrance Jar.