01/01/2021
I have many things in 2020 that I am thankful for. Myself and everyone in my family has their health, roofs over our heads, and food in our bellies. My daughter was blessed with becoming pregnant with God's gift #3, and I have had quality time with my grandchildren. I successfully completed my doctoral courses, and the end is near in my dissertation process. The main lesson that I have learned in 2020 is the importance of rituals. Without rituals, goals are never met, and happiness cannot be achieved. In 2020 I let rituals that are near and dear to my heart slide, and in 2021 I intend to fix what I broke.
Today I arrived in 2021, prepared to put in place my rituals, and set a few guidelines. Being the queen of hobbies, I had to first take time and give thought to what was one positive change that I wanted to make in my life. Although tempted to sign-up for multiple, focusing on many increases my chances of failure. For me, the most important ritual for producing a quality life is my mindfulness - yoga, and meditation. My second guideline is to start out small. It doesn't matter if the meditation only lasts for 10 minutes, and the yoga practice is brief, what matters is that I show up day after day, and follow through with my commitment. They say that it takes at least sixty-days to establish a ritual, making the first two steps critical to success. During that sixty-days, this ritual becomes part of our life, something that we can identify with.
Not breaking the chain during this sixty-day period is important. Holding myself accountable to this daily ritual, and also remembering, whether it is writing, going to the gym, whatever, remember that it doesn't matter if the duration is 5-minutes, 20-minutes, it is all about showing up for you. Many of us, including me, will have to say no to others, be better at structuring our time, and get creative regarding what will motivate us to show up for us. What is one daily ritual that will get you back to happiness in 2021?