Harriet Cabelly, LCSW
Therapist . Speaker . Author
In anticipation of the new year, let’s take a few moments to reflect back on this past one. I mean the good stuff of the year.
It’s easy to point to our difficulties, problems and issues throughout the year. Our brains are like the news –they tend to gravitate and focus on the negatives and the bad happenings.
I’m asking you to pull up the moments of goodness, joy, pride, fun, excitement. Let’s escort in the new year by recalling what we had rather than what we didn’t have. We’re way ahead of the game if we can usher in 2013 on a positive note by bringing to the forefront of our minds the goodness of this past year. It’s a magnet that will attract more goodness.
Illuminating the pluses will immediately set us up on a better path and give us a more grateful footing with which to step.
Even if we have to dig deep, the good is there. There’s glitter in the dirt. There’s a twinkle in the darkness.
Looking back over this past year, what are you proud of? What are you pleased with? What are you grateful for? What was an exciting time? What brought you joy and pleasure? What made you laugh? What was meaningful? What enriched your life? What risks did you take? What lessons did you learn?
Let’s revel in this. Let’s pat ourselves on the back and go forward anticipating lots more pats for both ourselves and others. Good begets good.
Your turn. Share some of your most alive moments.
Thanks for joining me here. May we all find the treasures and beauty in our lives. And when the darkness comes, may we be strong enough to withstand the turmoil until we begin to see some light filtering through once again, bringing a new form of lightness to our being.
Great blog as usual Harriet. You’re always thinking forward, not backward. We should dwell on our positive experiences, learn from our negative ones, and always strive to move forward to make our dreams become reality. Perhaps we should move “out of the box” to take on some “unreasonable” challenges in order to make our lives extra-ordinary. Sitting there doing the same old thing always brings us the same old results – no growth in that. I forget who said this but if you just sit on the railroad tracks, instead of getting up and going forward, you’ll just get run over by the train. In other words, getting there is only half the journey, doing something – taking pro-active steps in your quest for a better life – once you make the decision to go forward is essential. Happy New Year. I love you. Alan
Harriet,
One highlight of my year was meeting you! Thanks for all the hard work!
Hi Adina,
Ditto back to you. I hope we continue to do more together.
The words “stepping” and “positive” go well together…and that’s when I feel most alive
be good to yourself
David
Hi David,
You feel most alive when you…. step positive! Amen to that.
I’m loving all your posters with your sayings. Great job!
Hi Harriet – this brings to mind Miss Kesha’s post, which Adrienne Smith recently recommended, in which she suggests setting up a ‘jar of awesomeness’, in which you keep notes of all the good stuff that happens to you through the year – then, at the end of the year, you can look back at all your blessings. I think it’s a great idea and I’ve got my jar ready and waiting.
As you say, we do have a tendency to focus on the bad stuff, particularly if you’re the ‘glass half-empty’ type of person – I’m hoping my jar will motivate me focus on all the great things that happen this year.
All good wishes for 2013 – hope it’s awesome!
Sue
Hi Sue,
Great to ‘see’ you here. Thanks for popping by and commenting. I actually got inspired by Ms. Kesha’s post and that’s what prompted this piece. I’m getting my jar and colored papers ready today too.
When we take in all the bad stuff going on around us, it’s most imperative that we ‘work’ to see the goodness and joy and experience it fully. It’s all too easy to get swept away with the tidal waves of horror. The Goodness must outweigh all this in the big and very small ways.
Happy 2013 to you and yours. Let’s keep adding Greatness.