closing down the chapter of our lives that was 2020. While 2020 was unquestionably challenging (for some devastating), challenges almost always come with seeds of opportunities. We can use this "pattern breaking" time to look back and release whatever no longer serves, and cultivate what is or can be useful. We can extract the gifts out of last year, as a creative alchemical practice - turning the led into creative gold. Below are 12 of the gifts I'm taking from 2020 (a year where I had many losses as well).
12 gifts I'm taking from 2020:
1. I learned how to use Zoom features (break out rooms, the white board, using visuals and videos, etc.) which allows me to facilitate client workshops online. I would not have learned the Zoom features had all my on-site workshops not been cancelled.
2. I reconnected with old friends and colleagues because we were all home and available, and formed some new and renewed partnerships, ideation sessions, and learning labs.
3. I learned new and varied types of body-centered practices online that I would not have taken the time to do had I been going to my health club.
4. I created a couple small practice groups and masterminds to explore and try out new concepts and practices.
5. I went to more backyard social-distancing gatherings/dinners/rituals/bonfires with local friends instead of public events.
6. I started updating my website, which had been long overdue (coming soon).
7. I took a lot of time to reflect on who I am now, what I still want to offer that I have been offering, what to let go of, and what new offerings and practices are calling to emerge. What I offer and how is changing - in my coaching and my facilitation. I had the time to take stock on where I am now, and what is next.
8. I started working on some projects and products that I will be unfolding in 2021.
9. I re-visited painting, and started creating Emergent Mandala drawings, which has been transformative for me at many levels...and also will be leading to new offerings.
10. I found some thought-provoking, inspiring (some more analytical, other more aspirational) podcasts which I love - a kindred, diverse tribe of like-minded aspirational people who I don't personally know - that I wouldn't have taken the time to do had life been as-usual.
11. I learned a lot, questioned my assumptions - in my own life, in society, and in the world - about what I value, and had countless thought-provoking, generative, sometimes challenging/often enlightening conversations that continue to help me grow and evolve. It was a year of deep reflection, questioning, and discovery around certain issues and ideas I had not previously reflected upon in the same ways. My frameworks expanded.
12. I feel I was able to serve my clients at deeper and more expanded levels due to what they were/are facing and experiencing with their own 2020 challenges..and helping them stay creative, resilient, and adaptive during these times.
I'm not trying to paint a pollyanna picture. There was much I missed terribly (like in-person facilitation, which is a big part of my soul-food) for which there is no substitute. And many people suffered much larger losses. My heart goes out to you if that was you. This is just to say that once we are forced into a contracted space, not of our own choosing, we still all have the capacity to extract some meaning and creativity from it - some creative nuggets. This has been true for every society in every era - many of which had more limitations and darker times that we have just had.
Instead of looking at only what was lost in our work, we can acknowledge it, and mourn the losses...and...look at some of the gifts, even if still only in seed-potential form, as hints of what we can create in the new year. Our creative source (the creative wellspring inside of us) is unlimited...and will give us ways to create new doors when old ones close if we embrace the mindset and heart-set to engage with it...and give ourselves the time to do so. There are always choices within every contraction.
What are some of the nuggets, learnings, or seeds of potential you are taking into the new year?
Michelle James ©2020
Wonderful meditation, Michelle. Thank you.
Posted by: Madelyn | December 30, 2020 at 02:18 PM
Thanks so much, Madelyn!
Posted by: Michelle | December 30, 2020 at 02:54 PM