How are you starting the new year?
In this house, we are adopting the idea I shared on social media between Christmas and New Year. We have started the year with a Jar of Good Things.
I love this idea, and given by the response from your lovely selves, many of you do too.
There seem to be a number of sources for the original idea, and you can read some of those experiences here and here, dating back 10 years. I don’t imagine anyone has the copyright on gratitude. There is not a monopoly on mindful awareness of good things.
What is our Jar of Good Things?
The idea is a very simple one. Take a big jar. Make it pretty or inspiring or jazzy or plain as you wish. Perfectionism is not the goal here – simply having an appropriate vessel that you use for 52 weeks is.
Every week, write down one good thing on a small piece of paper.
Pop it in the jar.
By the end of the year, there will be a minimum of 52 pieces of paper contained therein, depending on how many in your household are practicing this lovely gratitude habit.
On December 31 2023, or at the beginning of January 2024, take out all those bits of paper, unfold and uncrease them.
And then relish and cherish all those memories of good things that happened throughout 2023.
What are the benefits of this?
Having a Jar of Good Things (capitals are of course entirely unnecessary, but I like the Emphasis of them in a Winnie the Pooh kind of way) brings many benefits.
It is all too easy to have the external pressures and worries of the world swamp our minds and fill our thoughts with negativity and gloom. Choosing each week to stop and write down what is GOOD is a great reset.
This is a lovely family activity, as it prompts conversation between family members about what is going on in their lives that is good, and that we are thankful for. Currently, in this the second week of January, there are four bits of paper in our jar, as all four of us were in residence last week. Elder Nearest-and-Dearest leaves this week for university, and then there will be three. And later this year, it is likely that Younger Nearest-and-Dearest will also leave, depending on university offers. I have no doubt that this event will feature in my musings as this will be the biggest change to our family in 20 years.
So our jar will also be a record of who has been living here and when, as our family grows and changes.
It can be too easy to get to the end of the year and to feel a bit overwhelmed by what has been hard, especially if it is fresh in our minds. We so easily forget. Our brains like to conserve energy, and if our default way of thinking is worry, anxiety, negativity, being hard on ourselves, this will be what is dominant in our minds. More on this next week.
So imagine getting to the end of the year, and having all the good things – both small and large – laid out before you as a reminder of the year gone by.
And of course, there will always be hard things. We have no idea what hard things lie in store this year.
But…there will also ALWAYS be good things, and that is what we are choosing to focus on. At the end of the year we get to celebrate, remember, enjoy and keep our perspective healthy.
What a lovely treat.
I have written here before about what it means to start the year well, about the importance of beginning with the end in mind.
I have written too about having plans for the year ahead, a word for the year, and the importance of regular reflection. And last year I considered keeping it simple and choosing to change just one thing.
Lots of food for thought at this time of year, if that is what you are looking for.
No doubt, these musings will be revisited as the year progresses as having a clear outcome in mind is important with a lot of what we do, and reflection remains central to how we grow.
But for now, for this year start, I like the simplicity of the jar of good things. I don’t want to get too ambitious with goals and plans, as I was musing last week.
Today is enough, and this week is a fresh opportunity to note down one good thing to put in our jar of good things.