It is the last day of 2014 and today I find myself in a reflective mood. For me the end of a year doesn’t mean that everything automatically changes and that life as it is now magically transforms.
And the arrival of a new year is about so much more than the “new year new me stuff” that you find in the magazines –10 tips to achieve wealth, how to get the job you want this year, how to get rid of your muffin top after the holidays….
It’s a time of psychological and spiritual introspection – and this year the process is even more important to me than ever before.
It has been one of the most difficult years I’ve ever experienced. Many changes, loss, heartache, uncertainty, regret and difficult stuff to get my head around. But what I’ve realised is that sometimes in the winds of change we find our direction.
And this is exactly what’s happened to me. This is why I also believe that this year has also been the most life-changing and beautiful one, by far. It has been a time of new beginnings, discovery, renewal, reinvention and finding out what makes me happy and become more of who I really am.
So I would like to end 2014 with immense gratitude for my life.
Someone once wrote that the box of darkness you receive at some point in your life is in fact also a gift. A year ago I wouldn’t have believed it, but today I am thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength. And the dysfunction I inherited from my childhood won’t live on.
Earlier this year I wrote a post on happiness – and I think I’m making good progress on my journey to discovering and loving being truly happy. I believe (for me, anyway) that happiness is the most important thing in life. It is about experiencing a settled soul.
This is what I wrote in August:
This is really what I’ve always wanted. To be happy. Nothing more than that – just happy. It seems so simple, but I’ve spent years of my life trying to get to this point.
I don’t really think of it as a destination, but more of a process and it has been a desperate search at times. And by happy I don’t mean rainbows and unicorns and that everything in life is always fantastic. It is a deep feeling that no matter what goes wrong, in my soul I am feeling alive, safe and at peace.
For me, being happy is the biggest success I will ever achieve in my life. If I’m happy I can be a better person, love more and feel more deeply. It means I can live a more meaningful life.
In 2015 I will continue to celebrate being alive – it is really a precious gift. And I’ll do even more of what makes my soul happy.
I would like to thank all my readers for visiting my blog this year. My hope for you is that something I’ve said somewhere in these posts helped you in some way, inspired you and given you hope. I look forward to sharing more with you in 2015.
Love, light and peace to all of you.
Painted Heart Diaries 