As the year winds down, take time to reminisce and record the good that has happened, and release the bad.
Here are 5 ways to do that.
1) Tape a piece of paper in a prominent place, where every member of the household can add things. Write them down as you think of them. Fold the paper in half. Good on one side, bad on the other.
2) Start a file on your phone to keep the lists with you where ever you go.
3) Give each person in your household, that is old enough to write or communicate thoughts for someone to write for them, a journal to note what was important to them.
4) Go through your social media posts to see all the little things that may be forgotten in the midst of the big things. Walking your first 5k in April could long be forgotten as you got married in August. The size of the event doesn’t detract from the importance of it.
5) Have a designated time when you come together as a household, with family, or with friends and name things that have been good and bad in the year.
Once you have this information, make time to talk about what is on both lists. Celebrate the good. No matter how big or small, wins are wins.
Release the bad. Cry, talk, sit quietly with the sadness. Then, in what ever manner works for you, destroy the bad list. It isn’t that those things will go away, but that they won’t be what you focus on to carry into the new year.
If you can safely do so, you could burn the list. Or rip it up and throw it away. ShreddIng it is a good feeling. As long as it is safe, nothing is rediculous. I suddenly have the image of a child ripping the paper and stomping on it. That may be my choice this year.
Put the record of good away to look back on regularly through the years.
Count your blessings, they will put joy in your memories.
