2022 - Lessons In The Rear-View Mirror
As the Year 2022 turns into the Year 2023, and we look towards the future with hope bi’iznillah, it is also just as important to look back, with gratitude, and appreciate how far we have come, Alhamdulillah.
1. *Safety* is the most crucial component to human happiness, health and wellness. I cannot emphasise this enough. Mutual love, respect, and companionship will follow, but only if you feel safely and securely held with mercy within your home and your relationships.
2. The interconnection of human companionship is vital to human survival. However, it is equally vital to choose wisely. Some of the people we choose to share our lives with are dangerous and abusive predators, while others can be intentionally or unintentionally cruel, leaving you to carry a torturous burden of jagged wounds, pain, anguish and tremendous loss and grief, that can take a very long time to heal. The scars will likely remain forever, as a reminder of a tormented past, but with the acceptance of this, comes a certain level of peace.
3. Be mindful of how you expend your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical energy. Guard your heart space. It is truly sacred space. Not just anyone or anything should be allowed in, without careful consideration and filtering.
4. ‘No.’ is a complete sentence. Politely and respectfully, ‘No.’ Establish clear boundaries and hold yourself accountable, because only you can honour your own boundaries, in order to protect you. When it comes to decision making, if it is not a heartfelt ‘Yes!’, then it is an emphatic ‘No.’
5. Sometimes, it’s best to walk away from places, people, and things. Know that the truth will stand clear from falsehood. You don’t need to prove your story, you don’t need validation, and you certainly don’t need anyone’s approval. The authenticity of being yourself, is a gift you give yourself and others, when you choose to live a simple life, that aligns with your core value in all matters.
6. The human experience is a complicated struggle from birth to death. Pain, hurt, tears, and suffering is part of this worldly life, by definition. This temporary and transient world is designed to break your heart, so that you don’t become attached to it. Rely on the Creator *alone* to see you through this abode, in which you are a stranger or a traveller passing through it.
7. Transitions take time. If you need to retreat to dress your wounds, heal, and rest, then allow yourself the permission and the self-compassion to do so. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. It’s so very important to take care of you, so you can take care of loved ones, especially children who are dependents; their health and wellbeing depends on your health and wellbeing.
8. You are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are your stream of consciousness. Observe your thoughts with curiosity. Consciously decide, which ones may flow through, which ones you need to let go of and which ones you will hold on to. The practice of mindfulness is paramount to live an intentional, meaningful and purposeful life.
9. There is a time for *being* and there is a time for *doing*. May we all be blessed with the wisdom to know the difference. The world will tell us, that this is important, and that is important, but we must find the courage to pause, to be still, to be silent, and to truly listen to the compass of our spiritual heart, to know what is divinely important and meaningful in life.
10. Nature is so very healing. The wide expanses of oceans, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, mountains and glaciers provide wide open spaces where you can go, to inhale deeply, expanding the lungs with cleansing air, and to exhale deeply, letting go of what no longer serves you. Know that, it's okay to let go, and let God….