Present – December 2020 Update

I’m joining Honoré at Morning Glory Studio and writing about my One Little Word – Present (click here to view all of my posts on this topic this year). This is our last gathering of 2020 – what a year! And a perfect opportunity to practice being present.

2020 has been a year full of challenges for everyone, yet many of us have been able to take stock of what’s important and essential in our lives. I’ve spent this year battling an Instagram habit, learning lessons from birds, cultivating a daily habit of mindfulness, and practicing being present during difficult moments with my family. Have I learned to stay more present? I hope so. But I think the key takeaway is learning to notice when we’re not being present – the ability to recognize our lack of presence is enough to bring us back to reality. Another lesson from the year has been to recognize this as a lifelong process; people spend their entire lives practicing being present. It’s never mastered. It’s never really acquired. It’s practiced – from moment to moment. And with enough practice, we can learn to remove ourselves from chaotic situations without actually going anywhere. We can learn to use a calm and rational approach when everything is swirling around us, seemingly out of control.

I started focusing on one little word word in 2018 (but didn’t join this linkup until this year!). In 2018, my word was Abundance. In 2019, I chose Pause. And of course, 2020 was a year to learn to be Present. All of these play on similar themes – how can I be happy with what I have? How can I quiet the prospecting aspect of my personality and focus on what’s right in front of me? Well, I plan to keep working on this next year but from a slightly different angle:

2021 Word of the Year

I introduced Stillness as my 2021 word at our last gathering and I’m still happy with this choice. One of my 2021 goals is to make meditation a daily practice. I want to explore different spiritual practices with the hope to find something to ground myself in. And most prominently, I want to face my challenges with jealousy and internalize the fact that I don’t have to do everything in order to be happy. I’m hoping to practice stilling my heart when all of these little doubts start creeping in and I start feeling slightly manic about doing all.the.things.

In preparation for the new year, I’ve downloaded a couple of meditation apps to try. I’m trying Insight Timer and MyLife Meditation: Mindfulness. I’d welcome your recommendations if you use an app to help with your meditation practice or if there are books that you consider a must-read. I know many of you have found ways to make meditating a part of your daily routine and I’d love to read more about how you’ve done that.

In January I’m going to try Adriene’s 30 Day Yoga Journey. I try these every year and never complete them, but I’m hoping this will be the year! Her intro video makes it seem like it’s going to be a gentle practice this year and that sounds perfect to me.

Those are the two habits I’m going to work on in January: meditation and yoga. I’ll experiment with times and styles and see what feels like a good fit for me. I will report back on the last Tuesday of January with my findings!

I want to thank Honoré for being such a kind and gracious host this year. She’s handing over the duty to a different blogger in 2021 and I think we’re going to find out who that is in her post today. Here’s to 2021 and all of our little words!