Reminisce and smile or reflect and cringe?

How often do you reminisce about days gone by? A little walk down memory lane can be enjoyable, so much so that many social media apps even provide an easy way to look at all the things you were doing on this day x years ago. While I love to float on nostalgia and sit in tender moments of happiness and joy, sometimes I look back and think, “yikes! What was I thinking?!” Have you ever been there? 

I heard it said once that if you don’t look back and cringe, you’re not growing. I love that mentality. You don’t get to beat yourself up for your choices and don’t have to pretend that you’ve always made good ones. Instead, you look back at your younger self and know that each choice got you here, to the place you are now. Whether by grand design, or cause and effect, without the good, bad, and ugly decisions you have made, you wouldn’t be who you are now. 

The end of the year is often a time to reflect and set new goals. When you look back at the last year, can you see how much you’ve grown? Are you a different person now than you were then? I hope that your answers are yes and yes. That you grow with every challenge and every hardship. That instead of throwing in the towel and waving a white flag of surrender every time life knocks you down, you take a step back and question, what am I to learn here? Why is this challenging me? 

That isn’t always easy. Sometimes, you stay down for a while and wonder if this is just how life is now. Sad, depressing, and a perpetual wheel of “it didn’t work out.” If that is the season of life you’re in now, I’m here to tell you it won’t always be that way! There is probably one big lesson life is trying to teach you, and you’re a little too close to the situation for it to sink in. That is when you need to call on your friends, healers, and spiritual leaders for guidance. 

You can always continue to tough it out on your own. Keep doing what you've always done and hoping you get different results. Let me tell you, I've tried that strategy, and I don't recommend it. It is disheartening to tell yourself you want to be a better you and 6 months down the road look back and realize you haven't grown or changed at all. Your actions today will decide if you are going to reminisce and smile or reflect and cringe at the end of next year. 

If your goal for 2023 is to continue to grow, heal from or avoid burnout, and be a better version of yourself than you are now, you need a plan. You need a cheerleader. And you need someone who can help guide you. That is exactly what I do here at Purely You Healing. Whether through one-on-one sessions or a complete coaching package, we will get you to a place where you can look back and think, “man, I have come a long way since those days.” 

Or get started on your own with this 5-step guide to saying no and honoring your boundaries.