What a wild year it has been. Can we all agree?
There have been times where I have felt suffocated and scared of the future (listening to the news or people talk about how horrible it had all gotten). Also, there have been times were I felt completely invigorated (launching teagslee.com, my eBook and becoming my own business in mining). This year has definitely tested all of us in one way or another but, as the year of 2020 is almost over I thought it would be important to reflect on the year and find all the good stuff that happened. Sometimes when a year comes to an end we start to think about all of the things we didn’t do, achieve or tick off our list.
Today I am going to share five things that I have learnt/achieved/still working on this year, that I am going to take through the years to come. I would love for you to comment below and share yours. The more gratitude the better for us all.
5 lessons I have learnt and grown from in 2020
- We receive information differently depending where we are in life
- Continually practicing meditation keeps my mind calm, provides clarity in thoughts and peace within myself.
- Surrendering is hard (really hard) but so very rewarding.
- Working on listening to your intuition will lead you down the correct path.
- Taking teeny tiny daily inspired actions in the direction of your goals is better than doing nothing
We receive information differently depending where we are in life.
Through the year I watched everyone learn about a plant based lifestyle from the documentary, The Game Changers (released September 2018). This is when it sunk in, that people do not need to be told how to eat, they need to be shown. I remember when I first went vegetarian I remember wanting to tell everyone how great it felt; physically and spiritually – but it just isn’t in my nature to do that. I watched other people try to force it onto their families and friends and only find resistance. The amount of messages I got from people after they watched this documentary was so crazy to me. Also some people said, ‘why didn’t you tell us this’ such and such information they learnt. Here, it dawned on me – that we are all on our own journey (whether it’s consciously or unconsciously). We receive information for where we are in our life’s journey.
Some people are consciously trying to make them selves better while some people are just going through the motions. Both are ok.
Continually practicing meditation keeps my mind calm, provides clarity in thoughts and peace within myself.
This year has been stressful for all and busy for some. There were a few times this year that my meditations were skimmed over or forgotten. As soon as a month had gone past of me being completely slack with my own practice, anxious feelings were right there reminding me to take care of my practice. I went through a stage of getting to bed in the evening and relaxing and finding that my ribs were extremely sore. I hadn’t been belly breathing all day. I was shallow breathing, unable to take a full breath and was in complete fight & flight mode ready to run from a tiger.
My meditation practice keeps my mind calm, reactions neutral and thoughts clear. As soon as I notice that I am way too stressed for my situation, I have to take some serious time to sit in meditation. It also dawned on me that I need to often practice meditation longer that 15 minutes. My CrossFit coach Ben asked if I’d like to do a 45minute sit with him and I initially said ‘no I haven’t got time’, to quickly checking in and saying ‘actually that’s exactly what I need’. Gee wizz, I hadn’t done a 45 minute meditation in the longest time – so that’s a goal to do at least one each week. So if anyone would like to join me, let me know.
Surrendering is hard (really hard) but so very rewarding.
Who else here is a bit of a control freak? Green personality type needing all the planning and details? Or a Vata body type and always on the go? A projector who’s focused on a goal?
I understand your frustration when things just aren’t quiet going the way you planned, strategized and just wanted. 2020 has been frustrating at times.
Surrounding the fact that we don’t have control over everything lets your nervous system catch some chill time.
Surrendering to the fact that things aren’t always perfect.
Everything happens for a reason and usually the universe has a bigger and better plan for you.
So every time I find myself frustrated, I tell my self to release the expectations of the outcome and allow it to unfold as it should.
Working on listening to your intuition will lead you down the correct path.
We all listen to our intuition via different feelings. Some in our heart, belly, mind or how ever else you receive these ‘pings’. I have always been pretty good at listening but there are definitely times where I have blocked it off (for different reasons, blockages and situations). I often go through a phase where I get imposter syndrome and start to second guess myself. This is clouding my judgement. I have to remind myself that I have the answer.
Trusting that you have the answer within you. Trust yourself that you know what is best. Trusting yourself gets you further than trusting that others have the answers for you.
Have you ever gone to a friend to ask a big question and you didn’t get the answer you wanted? Yep, that is your intuition telling you the answer.
Taking teeny tiny daily inspired actions in the direction of your goals is better than doing nothing
If you’re like me (green personality, vata body type, a projector) or just a big goal setter – we often scare ourselves out of it and then just avoid it all together. Can you relate? Or we get imposter syndrome? (rolling my eyes at myself).
The best thing I discovered this year was to do the smallest steps to get to the bigger goal and to do it every day. Each day I ask myself, ‘what can I do today to move myself closer to my goals” and then I do that.
Really simple + really effective.
Remember when you are looking back over the year, find gratitude for the things you are proud of, take notice of what you learnt and become. Often we get stuck on thinking about all the things that we haven’t done. I mean I was meant to take my parents over to Europe this year and obviously that couldn’t happen. The bright side to that is we can save up a little bit more money and annual leave to be able to take extra time to discover the Greek Islands and the Tuscan Region. So really it’s just a win win.
Obviously there have been some really horrible times in the world and the mental health of some have really suffered but I encourage you to really think about some positives. When we have gratitude, we are able to create more of that.
Tell me, what are you grateful of from 2020?
Love + Peace
Teags Lee x
