In Search of Bliss

The holidays are wonderful for so many reasons. My favourite thing about this time of year (besides the abundance of delicious baked goods) is looking back on the year that’s been. I love to reflect on all that I’ve done and seen, how it’s changed me and how I’ve grown. I take these learnings into my New Year’s resolutions for the upcoming year.

This is a habit that I formed in childhood. Being a kid that didn’t celebrate Christmas made the month of December a challenge and my parents compensated by making New Year’s into a big deal. We always got presents, including a calendar for the new year. We decorated the house. We watched the ball drop in Times Square with the same family friends every year. All of this instilled in me a strong sense of significance in the closing of one year and starting of another.

As I look back on 2016 I can easily say that it was one of the biggest years of my life. Some major life changes led to a remarkable amount of personal growth and the life lessons I gained were equally noteworthy. Here are my five biggest learnings of 2016:

1. A Newfound Love and Respect for my Body

From climbing mountains on two hours sleep to planting 100 trees in a day to growing a human, I put my body through some serious tests this year. And I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for what it can do. The human body is a seriously amazing thing. It is our single most valuable resource to get us through our daily life, anyone who has every dealt with injury or disability is very aware of this. But for most of us we spend each day taking it for granted. If you only achieve one thing every day, let it be to honour your body and give it plenty of love.

2. Balance is the Key to Happiness

This concept has gained newfound significance for me over the past year and a half because it’s been a time of extremes (from working full-time to not working at all, from moving halfway around the world to coming back home). What I’ve learned from it is that achieving true happiness is not possible without balance in three key areas:

The balance between:
– physical health and mental health
– finding purpose in life at work and life outside work
– caring for yourself and caring for others

I believe if you can achieve a good balance in these areas of your life, you will find true happiness.

3. Growth is Vital to Living Life to the Fullest

As kids we were constantly learning and growing, and we probably didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a big source of our perpetual happiness. As adults life provides fewer of these opportunities, but that doesn’t mean we stop needing them. The capacity for growth is an amazing part of being human and there’s NO greater satisfaction you can feel than pushing yourself to do something new and discovering that you’re up to the task. The way I see it, the moment you stop growing you stop living. You’re just ‘existing’, lulled into a haze by comfort and monotony.

 

4. Be Kind to Yourself

This is the third time I have written about this and I keep doing it because this learning has had such a profound impact on my daily life. I had a very specific moment of realization last fall when I discovered that I was getting in the way of my own happiness. Your journey through life will not be smooth sailing. Being too hard on yourself won’t achieve anything except make the journey more difficult. The moment you decide to cut yourself some slack you will become happier.

5. Give the Best of Yourself to Those Closest to You

This is another concept I have written about multiple times because it has been such a significant learning for me. The people closest to us, the ones we can always count on, are often the ones we most take for granted. How many times have you used up all your positive energy throughout the day on co-workers, minor acquaintances or even total strangers, only to come home and snap at your family? Those closest to us should get the majority of our time and our positive energy, so why is it often the other way around? The relationship this has had the most impact on for me has been with my husband and he has told me multiple times how much it has changed for the better in the past year since I’ve focused on practicing this.

 

What were your biggest learnings of the year? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!