End of Year Reflections
In life, we often find ourselves rushing from one moment to the next, seldom pausing to reflect or to listen to our bodies. Or, if we do hear the sometimes polite requests, and other times loud screams and demands from our bodies, we may ignore them for a variety of reasons. Whether our own minds are too loud to hear them or we choose to ignore them because it can sometimes feel too overwhelming to listen to all of the seemingly constant demands and requests coming our way, they become tucked away, but never fully go away.
That is what 2024 felt like, one big rush and race from one thing to the next, with demands and requests coming from multiple directions. Though I am sure there were moments of calm and quiet, the overwhelmingly loud demands felt non-stop and more prevalent than anything else. It was a year of many, many mixed emotions —mostly exhaustion, uncertainty, and frustration for many.
For many of those same reasons experienced by so many others, I knew that I needed to be intentional in how I chose to close out 2024. I wanted to be intentional about what was no longer serving me and what I was releasing. Lastly, I wanted to be intentional about what I am creating space for in my life. When faced with health challenges this year, self-care, healing, and restoration took on a whole new meaning for me.
I had the opportunity to experience a restorative escape at Postcard Cabins. I shared my serene experience here. It provided me with the opportunity to reflect, to breathe, and to give my body the rest that it needed and deserved. I had a chance to, as I like to call it, practice the pause. The phrase practice the pause is a gentle reminder that I share with my clients. It means to take a moment to be still, to learn to respond instead of react, to be intentional, and to be present. In doing so, it allows us to deepen our connection with ourselves and others so that we may show up fully in our relationships, and with greater awareness. The first relationship that we have the opportunity to practice the pause is in the relationship with ourselves.
Through meditation, journaling, rest, connection, and time in nature, I found myself able to better respond to the multiple requests and demands that I, too, thought I had tucked away or tried to ignore. I stepped away with a renewed perspective in my approach to several different areas of my life. As Kendrick Lamar and SZA recant in their ode to love in the melodious luther, “better days comin’ for sure.” May 2025 be the year that you are able to harness the healing power of self-love and self-care with intentionality and steadfastness. Whether it is through starting therapy, your own self-love journey, and self-care practices that nourish your mind, body, and spirit, I hope it is restorative and that it makes your heart immensely full.
May we all continue to find inspiration to begin, continue, or resume our individual paths to emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Wishing you a beautiful 2025, may it be a new opportunity to embody a serene life that allows you to heal, balance, and restore.
