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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
By Julie Cross
Here we are well into 2021 already. I woke
up this morning and as I lay there reflecting
on this New Year on our expectations and on
what I wanted to share with you around this,
and, well it got me thinking about ‘waking up’.
Firstly, how grateful I am to be waking up to another day and
another year. Let’s just start there and be grateful for that.
Sometimes we really need to go back to the foundations and
scaffold up from there and a ‘New Year’ is always a good time to
check in on the foundations to make sure they are strong. Now
that may be the foundation of our business, our personal and
professional development, or our mental and emotional health.
So, to start with just being grateful you ‘woke up’ today in 2021,
isn’t that a good feeling!
And then I was reflecting on all of the ‘chatter’ I was hearing about
the year that was and the year that will be, you know what I mean,
you hear things like this, ‘Good riddance to 2020’ or ‘2021 better
be better’ or ‘This had better be MY year’ or ‘I can’t do another
one like that’ etc etc. And of course, much of this is habitual
banter that we throw around at the beginning and the end of years
depending on how we feel about what ‘life delivered’. But I would
suggest we wake up to the power of that chatter and remember
that what we say can influence our day and our year, and 2021
will just be the year it will be, and we will be the ones who decide
the attitude with which we deal with the days we have and each
day is indeed a gift. Let’s wake up to that!
But, in reflection I have also noticed people are ‘awake’ to
the many gifts that they discovered in 2020 in and around the
pandemic and in and around their own personal struggle and
pain... and when we are ‘awake’ we know and accept that some
struggle and pain is always a part of life... and while we should
always acknowledge our painful moments, give them space and
honour them, let us also be ‘awake’ in the knowledge that life is
not out to get us and we are not under personal attack from life,
and let us remember and be ‘awake’ to the knowledge that what
we focus on expands.
So, 2020, thanks for ‘waking us up’ and reminding us that physical
health is where it is all starts, after all if we do not have life itself,
what do we have? Thanks for waking us up and reminding us
that it is not JUST economic health that is important. Thanks for
waking us up and reminding us that we should not be relying on
travel far and wide to make us happy, but instead we can travel
deep within. Thank you for waking us up to the notion that we
should always be saving something for a rainy day, because life
never promised us sunny days every day and we need the rain,
even if to just appreciate the sun and enjoy the rainbows. Thanks
also for reminding us that in the times that are hard, times that are
overcast and dark for us, well there are others that may be having
their sunny days... and they deserve those too, and our sunny
days will come again.
Many people were woken up to what is really important in life
and have been reminded that so often it is the simplest of things
that make us happy... and suddenly the yearning was not for the
overseas holiday to make us happy, but instead it was just to be
able to hug our family... nice to wake up to that.
And as we sneak into 2021, let us stay awake, let us remember
the gifts of 2020, and I for one will not be putting any pressure on
2021 to ‘provide me’ with the year that I think I deserve, instead
I will stay awake to knowing that any day we get to be still here
and able to feel and live life, to make choices about how we deal
with what we are dealt, to be awake to really doing life’s journey
with all of its joy, laughter pain and wonder, to just have life itself...
well let me remember to always stay awake in gratitude for that.
You are also invited to wake up to knowing the difference you
make in the work you do. You are on the front line and we have all
been woken up to the knowledge that it is people like you making
a significant difference in our communities. Going about your
jobs every day, affecting people with your positive and vibrant
energy… lifting peoples spirits when they are down, well that is
also highly contagious and that really makes a difference in this
world, especially the world we have at the moment. But there is
more, in this time of being physically distanced you still have the
power to touch, don’t play small on that, wake up to the power of
that, humans need touch, people will be craving it, the stage is
set, it is your time to shine.
So, 2021, you are welcome. Come on in and do what you do, I
know you will bring some wonderful moments, some challenging
moments, some joyful moments, some moments that may bring
us to our knees and others that will have us punching the air in
delight... and we will do our best to live our best life and honour
you with the gratitude that comes firstly from just having life itself,
and let us always be awake to the fact that we can’t always
control what happens to us but we can choose how we respond!
I want to be ‘awake’ and feel it all, grow some more, give some
more and be some more... I am awake, and I am excited!
How about you?
Sparkle on!
60 Beauty Biz Year 14 Issue 1