The end of a year and beginning of a new one is a time for reflection and an opportunity to take inventory of our memories and experiences. This process can be enjoyable and some might find themselves indulging in nostalgia or comparing where they ended to where they began. While this is a very common way to approach the New Year, if we want to make the practice more meaningful and impactful we can employ mindfulness.  

Reflection is essential in developing self-awareness, building empathy, and assisting in emotional regulation. It is a way of meshing our internal and external worlds, giving weight to our emotions. It is also a huge building block of talk therapy and gives further insight into patterns we experience and biases we may possess. With practice and time, mindfulness can even reveal paths forward. Mindfulness practices and proactive reflection, when paired with gratitude, can spur internal growth in a big way. 

One of our big themes for 2024 is gratitude; we believe that practicing it is one of the keys to improving your happiness. Showing gratitude and developing practices around it is associated with lessening symptoms of anxiety and depression. Gratitude can also help keep your outlook positive which has extenuating benefits for productivity, self-esteem, sleep, and stress. It also plays a huge role in how we perceive events and the way we internalize things that happen to us which, in turn, plays a role in how we reflect on them. 

 If you missed the memo on incorporating gratitude, there are a few simple concepts to master. First, like any other skill, it requires consistency. Making a point to be grateful each day will improve your ability to feel gratitude naturally. If you make a point to focus on one moment of gratitude a day, it can change your outlook on life. This practice can be difficult to start, so we recommend scheduling a moment to meditate on things you’re grateful for each day. Alternatively, a gratitude journal is a great way to jumpstart the practice. It’s also important to take every opportunity to be grateful and show gratitude to those around you. Making sure to say thank you to those who help you along the way is not only a good way to reinforce the mindset but it is also shown to make relationships closer.

Second, practicing gratitude is a valuable way to put things into perspective. As much as it’s important to show appreciation for your situation when things go your way, it can be even more important when things aren’t going as planned. Gratitude acts as a buoy in a sea of uncertainty, and an anchor when you feel tossed to the winds of fate. To master perspective in gratitude it may be valuable to work on being present and in your body. This awareness of self can help you feel connected to the human experience and regulate your nervous system, making rational thinking easier. It may also be positive to consider your low points as a starting place, to truly appreciate how far you have come. Even a terrible day is better than your worst, and remembering this and calling on it when needed can be a source of comfort and give a much-needed mood boost.

Finally, the goal of gratitude is to make life lighter. Much like any change you make to improve your mental health, the process can feel foreign and cumbersome at first. With a bit of effort, this feeling will lessen and what will replace it will be a sense of comfort. To be grateful is truly freeing. If you feel angry or resentful with the world you live in or find yourself constantly dysregulated and feeling like you lack control, consider incorporating some practices. The benefits are truly endless. By changing the way you look at your everyday experiences, you can be more present in your body, calm, aware, and overall healthier and happier. 

So now that we understand the role of gratitude in bettering our lives and how to begin the process of practicing it we can look more closely at the role of reflection in that process, and why it is so important. Especially at a major benchmark such as the beginning of a New Year. 

As I mentioned, awareness plays a pivotal role in gratitude, and when looking over a whole year there are bound to be a few details that you have missed.  Although it’s not reasonable to assume you will remember every detail, what’s most important is that you can pull from the details you do remember and find some that are positive, uplifting, or aspirational. 

Some of us may already be in the habit of recording our thoughts and feelings in a journal. Alternatively, you can begin looking at pictures or videos from memorable moments. Having physical reminders of the things you’ve done and taking the time to review them is the first step to reflecting on your year. We recommend taking things a month at a time and creating a soft timeline of things that happened. These things can range from major life events like weddings or births to small moments like a nice day you studied at a cafe. They don’t all have to be positive. However, we do recommend focusing on the positive first- as getting derailed with negativity can distract from the point of the exercise. 

Once you’ve compiled your timeline it can be nice to sit with it for a while. Some people might like to talk about the things that they experienced, journal about them, or meditate on them. Focus on each event and the emotions attached. Take time to feel those feelings, allow yourself to fully emotionally and mentally process them, and release the negative if needed. This process will give you a better awareness of yourself, your growth, and patterns you may have experienced during the year. After you have combed through added context and emotionally rationalized the events, we recommend thinking about gratitude. 

This can look like calling up a friend to tell them that you thought of a nice memory and express how much it meant. It could mean looking back at old social media posts and holding within yourself a deep appreciation for the fact that you can express yourself and that people are experiencing that with you. It can look like knowing that things didn’t go your way but you still made it through and have the power to do better in the future. All of these thoughts are aligned with a gratitude mindset. They honor what has happened, without defining you or your future. The way we see things can shape our world in ways we may not always understand, but what we do know is that having a positive and mindful approach to the things we do can make a big difference.

Whether it’s experiences, good memories, special moments with friends and family, or personal growth we all have something to be grateful for this year. You deserve to feel a sense of closure as we round out the year, which is why we encourage each and every one of our readers to take the time to reflect and to do so with gratitude. For some, it may be a relief to go into the new year with less baggage, or with a renewed sense of purpose. However, what we believe is the most valuable thing you may take away from this practice is the peace, simple joy, and comfort of knowing that you are present in your human experience and that you have completed another year on earth.