31/12/2016
Another Christmas is over and today is the last day of 2016. I hope that you had a nice time and enjoyed making some new memories with loved ones.
For many of us 2016 has been a trying year with a lot of negatives, but there will also be many positives in there too - it can just be hard to see them because we tend to focus on what was bad rather than what was good.
My mum often says "the past is a nice place to visit, but it's not good to live there" and she is so right. So why is it that we often go back in our minds to the negative things that have happened, things that fill us with sadness, anger, guilt or regret?
We can't change what has happened, but we can choose what we focus on and how we use the lessons we have learned from those events. Everything that happens will teach us something - it's us who decide whether it was "good" or "bad".
So if you're looking back over the past 12 months and thinking it was a big, stressful pile of crap how can you possibly look forward to the good stuff that might happen in 2017? Do you want to get to the end of 2017 and look back thinking it was another 12 months of stressful crap?
If you get into your car today and the windscreen is dirty, there's a very good chance you'll spray it and switch on the wipers to clear away the grime that's stopping you from looking forward, won't you? Did you ever consider that the reason why your rear window is smaller than your windscreen is that it's more important to look where you're going than it is to look where you've been? It's good to glance back now and then, but if you only look out of the rear window you'll end up in serious trouble.
This applies to your mind too - you can use your mental windscreen wipers to clear away the grime that's preventing you from coping with the pressures of life, develop habits and strategies that make all the crap seem less important, and turn your focus to where you're going in 2017 and beyond.
Try to pack the boot of your mental car with all the stuff from 2016 that you want to take with you into 2017; pack all of the good things that happened along with the lessons that any of the negative things have taught you. Pack up the good habits you've developed this year, pack the good memories, the laughter, the love, the times you proved you're stronger and more resilient than you thought you could be. Then put all the other stuff you don't want or need to carry with you into a big box and blow that sucker to pieces! That feels better, doesn't it?
Wishing you a Happy New Year and 365 days of things to look forward to.
Allison
PS - tickets are still available to my full day workshop on 22nd January where you can learn how to live with greater ease and less stress. Discounted tickets are still available for a short time.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/managing-your-stress-for-a-better-life-tickets-29799978538
Enjoy a full day of interactive workshops on stress management, stress reduction and building resilience; learning how you can use these easy techniques to become much calmer and able to cope with the demands of work and family life. Some of the simple, effective things you’ll learn (and the scie...
