This Is What I Hope This Year Has Brought You
I hope this year has taught you to slow down.
To step back from your life, pause, and take a much needed breath. To give yourself time and space to think and feel and dream. And to check in with yourself. I hope this year has showed you that it’s okay to live life at a gentler pace. That the world won’t end and everyone around you will be okay even if you do. And in the moment, it may feel like you’re missing out or falling short; but in time you will look back and recognise how healing this was for you and your soul.
We’ve gotten used to living in a world where we can have anything we want in a second, and how interesting it has been to have that taken away overnight. It has forced us to be patient. To accept that we cannot always get what we want, no matter how desperately we crave it. And perhaps that wasn’t what we truly wanted anyway. Maybe we didn’t even know what we wanted, but the universe gave us what we needed, and that was perfect.
I hope this year has forced you to face yourself.
I hope this year has forced you to shine a light on the dark shadows lurking beneath the surface. The memories you’ve buried. The thoughts in the back of your mind. And the pleas in your heart. All the things that feel heavy in your life. This year, I hope you’ve learned to pay attention to those feelings, and to act on them. To recognise what feels in flow and what feels out of balance; and to make choices that help you return to harmony. To walk away from a relationship that is no longer serving you, only draining you. To say no to a job that brings you more stress than joy. And to put your needs first for a change.
I hope this year has filled you with gratitude and appreciation.
For the small things you used to take for granted. Like walking down the street, and popping round to your nan’s for a cup of tea and a zesty slice of lemon drizzle cake, and hopping on a place for two weeks of fun in the sun. For your healthy body, and the health of your loved ones too.
And I hope this year has filled you with gratitude for the even smaller things. Like waking up in the morning. Taking a deep breath of fresh air. Having a job and a cosy place to live and someone by your side to cuddle you good morning and kiss you good night.
I hope this year has taught you that these small things you usually skip right past are actually some the greatest things. And we should all be so lucky to experience the comfort and warmth that they bring.
I hope this year has encouraged you to be kind.
To people who you don’t know, and the people you do. To the ones who lead very different lives to you. And the ones who couldn’t look more different than you do, but share more with than you know.
I hope this year has taught you to love more. To love the people you love well, and to love and cherish them every minute of every day. And to love the people you don’t know at all. Because we all deserve to feel loved, and you never know what somebody else is going through.
But I hope this year has taught you to be kind and loving to yourself, too. To take good care of yourself, offer yourself compassion, and treat yourself the way you wish to be treated. Because most of us don’t do this half as much as we ought to. And life will continue to throw us obstacles and suffering, but it’s our love for one another that can remain constant through it all, and pull us through.
I hope this year has brought you clarity.
That you’ve come to understand what matters in your life, and to quit worrying about anything that does not. That you know who your people are, who your soul family are. The ones who will always be there to support you and love you and cheer for you, even when others are not. The ones who are there when life is sunshine and rainbows and raining money, and are still there when everything falls apart.
I hope this year has given you space to notice the small things you didn’t used to have time for. And that you’ve begun to recognise the meaning of it all. That you know with certainty what matters, and what does not. And that you now choose to live your life based on what you’ve discovered; what was stirring in your soul all along.
This year, there may have been setbacks and challenges and disappointments. Things that didn’t go as you’d imagined, and things that didn’t go at all.
But if you look for it, I mean if you really look closely for it, this year, there has also been vast learning and healing and growth. I’m sure of it.
And this year, I hope you can find it within you to be grateful for everything you were given.
Gratitude. Love. Appreciation. Clarity. Self-discovery. Healing. And growth, so much growth.
Because that is what this year has graciously gifted us.