Where do you find yourself on the mountains of life? When is it time to rest and reflect on your view versus climbing onward?

Where do you find yourself on the mountains of life? When is it time to rest and reflect on your view versus climbing onward?

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Chris Holgersson

With over a month of 2024 under your belt, how far have you climbed so far?

Are your feet still on the gas pedal with your head down moving forward, or have you slowed your pace to reassess things?

When we exert ourselves, it is expected that our heart rates will increase. Along with our pulse, our rate of breathing also rises to access the energy for the effort.

Considering that both our beating heart and breathing are continuous, lifelong functions, it is interesting to note that there is always a pause — however brief — between them, to have our bodies work optimally.

EXERCISE:

How often do you stop or slow down to rest and reassess your place in the world?

How and where would doing so help you grow and enjoy many more views along the way?

It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way.

“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way.”

Claude Monet, 19th Century French painter

Image from Wikipedia

I’m a big fan of the Big Bang TV series and don’t mind spending a bit of free time watching a few reruns.

In one particular episode the whole gang decided to go to an escape room as an evening diversion.

With only an initial clue or two, the group, with their mighty minds and keen powers of observation, found the key to escape in only six minutes.

EXERCISE:

How strong are your powers of observation?

How much time do you patiently and calmly reflect on life’s sticky situations to find a way forward you might not have ever considered?

How good are you at finding silver linings and blessings in disguise

How good are you at finding silver linings and blessings in disguise?

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by meriç tuna

Most people are familiar with the phrase “Seek and Ye Shall Find.”

Since childhood, playing games like hide and seek, peek-a-boo, and scavenger hunts have been ways to find people and things we consider interesting.

As the years roll by, what we tend to look for narrows. We seek pleasure, amusement, and fun, and we definitely do our best to avoid the distasteful and difficult. Over the years, how have you looked at the ups and downs of life for insights and lessons learned?

EXERCISE:

Where have you been blind to finding the silver linings and blessings that were disguised in some of the challenges you’ve faced?

How might greater reflection about your past and a deeper look at present and future events guide you toward a more fulfilling life?

It can be helpful examining the game tapes of your days

It can be helpful examining the game tapes of your days to explore what worked and what didn’t.

Image from Unsplash by Jeremy Bezanger

Consider the following scenario:

It’s mid-November and the big Thanksgiving celebration is coming up for the family. A wave of anxiety and hesitation comes over you knowing that similar gatherings in the past did not go well. You replay these events with your selective memory and clearly know that others were wrong in the way they acted.

What if you actually had a recording of some of these gatherings and had a coach to point out your own missteps and shortcomings?

How could this help you set things right and do much better in the future?

EXERCISE:

What are some of your most helpful reflective practices to examine the game tapes of your days?

Who are the coaches in your life that can offer a far more objective perspective to improve your performance in the games ahead?

 Stop, jot, and share. Use the superpower of reflection

Stop, jot, and share. Use the superpower of reflection to cement the value of the information you take in.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Gardie Design & Social Media Marketing

What types of information are you taking in these days? What are your strategies to not have the most valuable information go in one ear and out the other?

Consider the concept of eating and digestion. How do you select the most healthy and appetizing items to consume?

How do you chew on these ideas and mix this mash with the saliva and digestive juices of your past experiences and existing wisdom?

How do you discern and absorb the best nutrients and discard any waste products not meant for you?

EXERCISE:

How would jotting in a notebook or journal aid in your reflective skills to squeeze out even more nuggets of wisdom from your information diet?

Contemplate your monk mind instead of your monkey mind

Contemplate your monk mind instead of your monkey mind.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from youtube.com

Jay Shetty of the CALM Daily Jay meditation series recently offered today’s quote as a twist on a common theme to mindful awareness.

We all wrestle with chaotic thoughts from time to time, much like distractible hyperactive monkeys playing in the trees and jumping from branch to branch. Unless they are sleeping or grooming one another, their kinetic energy is often off the charts.

Shetty, a former Hindu monk, suggests we develop a monk mind of calm self-reflection and awareness that we can access during times of both calm and chaos.

EXERCISE:

Bring to mind your own vision of a mindful monk. How can and will you develop and practice these attributes to calm the rambunctious monkeys that often scurry around in your head? Click here to learn more about Jay.

Embrace the new year and take the time to be renewed and reborn

Embrace the new year and take the time to be renewed and reborn.

—Calm app Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Lukas Szmigiel

It is very common this time of year for many of us to review and reflect on the past year. TV shows and all types of media provide us with the top stories, photographs, and events that impacted and shaped us. How have you changed? What have you learned? What wisdom have you gained?

Instead of looking within, we may wish to look outside at nature’s mirror for guidance on living.  What can you observe regarding how our natural world reveals clear examples of ongoing growth, renewal, and transformation?

EXERCISE:

Sometime this week, get out of your home and your vehicle and step more fully into the natural world.

Take a walk, visit a body of water, look up at the sky and even try a forest bath.

What lessons are being offered to help you more fully embrace the year ahead?

Let us keep our silent sanctuaries, for in them the eternal perspectives are preserved

“Let us keep our silent sanctuaries, for in them the eternal perspectives are preserved.”

—Etienne Pivert de Senancour, 19th Century French essayist and philosopher

Image from Unsplash by David Edelstein

Where do you go to do a little soul searching? Where are the silent sanctuaries in which you can reflect on the most important aspects of your life? How often and how much time do you commit to these inner journeys?

Our new home in Pennsylvania has a loft that, with a set of two doors closed, provides for the silence and solitude I seek to do some of my most valuable reflective work. I’ve also found that walking in the very early morning hours makes most places a silent sanctuary to examine one’s eternal perspectives.

EXERCISE:

What are some of your own silence-seeking strategies and tactics that you preserve and protect to recharge and do your most important work? Please reply to this post with the approaches that work best for you.

Friday Review: Reflection

FRIDAY REVIEW: REFLECTION

How often do you step outside your routine just to reflect on your life? Here are a few reflection-related posts you may have missed.

 

“I have always tried to make room for anything that wanted to come to me from within.”

 

 

 

 

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”

 

 

 

 

“Don’t worry so much about knowing the right people. Just make yourself worth knowing.”

 

 

 

“Many of life’s treasures remain hidden because we never search for them.”

“Many of life’s treasures remain hidden because we never search for them.”

—Andy Andrews, The Noticer

Image from Unsplash by Marten Newhall

Looking again and again at your everyday life is an interesting exercise. How much has it changed over the past year? Where has it gotten worse, stayed about the same, or improved? Where are you discovering lumps of coal, or finding diamonds?

Searching more carefully and deeply for the hidden treasures beyond our current outer and inner horizons is accessible to everyone. With the many challenges facing us over the past fifteen months, some have actually transformed their lives.

Just as an able sailor heads out to sea rather than remaining in the harbors of the past or perceived safety, we can all benefit from venturing beyond our current view of things.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can and will you lead your own search party to discover even more of the hidden treasures life has to offer?