Another year has come and passed and it's time to reflect on all of the lessons and experiences had. For me, 2023 was a time to reflect on some big changes I was making to better my life and grow to be a better person for others. I had to overcome a lot of fears and anxieties and I certainly have a lot to reflect on for the past year.
The Year-End Journal Reflection is a great exercise to help you take stock of how your year went and think about the good things you want to take with you and the bad things you want to leave behind.
A Journal Reflection is a tool to help you move more intentionally into a new season of life.
It helps you to have a stronger direction in life because you have written down specific points about what's working for you and what's not. It's a process that is unique and personal and only you can fully understand how it relates your life.
If you are looking for some tips on how to get started writing a Journal Reflection and how to come up with your own journal prompts, see the Blog Post A Moment of Reflection in 2021.
Once you have your journal prompts listed, the next step is answering your journal prompt questions and thinking about how you want to improve this year. When you're answering your journal prompt questions, start to think about how you can take the good and leave the bad - these will be your Action Points.
Journal Prompt Action Points:
Taking what you learned in your Journal Reflection and making a list of actionable things to practice in the new year. Make a list of things you want to start doing or keep doing and things you want to stop doing - and just practice them over and over until you start to see your habits changing overtime.
Here's some examples of Action Points to help you get started:
Last year I started noticing little moments when life was good. This helped me to appreciate and focus on the good things in life rather than focusing on the bad things
Last year, I started journaling about events coming up where I was worried about the worst case scenario happening. In my journal, I would write down self-soothing thoughts about the best case scenario happening, which helped me to calm down anxieties and thoughts of worry or panic that were based on what was in my head and not what was actually happening.
Last year, I did not exercise consistently and prioritized working over taking care of my health.
Self-improvement is not easy but it's definitely worth it. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes trial and error but the results you'll see in your life will be worth it in the end.
The Journal Reflection exercise is a very personal process of taking an honest look at yourself. It might feel uncomfortable to put the mirror up in front of your face and look at the good and bad about yourself but I promise you will be better off from it. And don't forget to remind yourself that no matter how your year went, you are human and you did your best and the new year is a new opportunity to keep getting better in whatever ways feel right for you.
You are in the driver seat, you are in control and you can take your reflection and action points in whatever direction you want!
Through your reflection and action points, you might decide that you want change some things about your life... or you might decide that you want to dream big this year! ...or you might decide that you loved how things were going last year and want to keep doing everything you were doing because it was working! It's totally up to you but the best part is you get to create the life you want!
May the petals teach me the art of letting go...
My 2023 Year-End Journal Reflection Prompts:
What big life changes happened and how did I manage them?
What impact did grief have on my life?
What did I learn about healing my inner child?
What was the connection between going through traumatic events and having obsessive thoughts?
What did I learn about going out of my comfort zone more often?
What habits or thoughts did I develop to help take care of myself?
What did I learn about moments of ease and accepting good things?
What were my biggest lessons this year and what lessons do I want to take with me in the new year?
What do I want more of in 2024?
I haven't answered my reflection questions or made action points for the new year yet but some themes that I think will come up this year are expansion and new horizons. I spent the last year really facing some fears that were holding me back and made a lot of changes in my life, which set the foundation for me to welcome more abundance and new exciting things that have been waiting for me.
I'm sure there will still be up's and down's - I don't think those ever go away but the journal reflection exercise helps to push you forward in a positive direction and helps you to haven more awareness of the good and bad in your life. When you have that awareness, you can move towards the good and steer away from the bad, which is what we call being intentional.
I would love to hear some your personal journal prompts or things that came up for you in your reflection in the comments below!
Happy Reflections and Happy New Year!
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