In this post I share my favorite way to end the year.
This past year, for many of us, (myself included), has had many challenges and moments of despair, regret, missed opportunities, loss, ‘failure’, and all the painful emotions that accompany these experiences.
And of course there have also been beautiful moments, magical moments and great memories made.
This ritual I’m about to share with you can help you rediscover the many blessings of the past year and put you in a good place to start the next.
I call it the ‘Happy Highlights’ ritual.
The ‘Happy Highlights’ exercise allows us to reflect on all the happy, fun, meaningful, successful moments of the past year, all the things and people we’re grateful for, as well as the lessons we learned that came from all the challenges.
The highlights I share in this blog are from 2022, where finally after covid I got to travel back to Scotland and Ireland to visit my mum for the first time in 3 years, meet my new nieces x 2 that were born during lock down and do some fun traveling to Mexico and Jamaica. (I was clearly making up for the lack of travel we’d had during covid)
The Happy Highlights Ritual
It’s super simple!
And really it’s up to you how you’d like capture, or simply reflect upon, the past year’s highlights. The task is to seek out happy or meaningful moments, accomplishments, blessings and experiences of this past year.
One way I like to do it is, to look through my photos from last year and choose ones that have meaningful memories for me. My husband looks through his photos and does the same and then we combine them to make a little slide show. (this was inspired by Tony Robins). My husband then also adds video footage and we take a moment to enjoy this on the big screen together.
My favorite way to capture the past year is to make a digital collage of some of these photos, instead of/or as well as, a video. You could even get this printed every year and start a ‘Happy Highlights’ collection that you can look back on.
Not all significant moments will have been captured by photo. To help find these I like to flick through my calendar, journal, planner etc. and see what stands out as memorable.
To capture these I use a ‘mind map’ design. I keep it simple. You can make it as wild and wonderful as you wish!
As you reflect on the moments you cherish from last year, you may notice you start feeling more inspired and enthusiastic about the year ahead.
Yes there will be challenges no doubt, but there will also be moments to be grateful for, and a lot of this will come down to the attitude and energy you bring as well as the actions you take.
What you might you do, where you might go, what would you like to create or accomplish?
If you’re feeling called to a project or idea but finding it hard to begin or follow through, I created something that’ll support you (below).
Cheers to the many Happy Highlights you’ll look back on at the end of this coming year.
