A life lived with purpose and growth is a life well-lived. – Lisa Layden
As 2020 is drawing to a close, we find ourselves reflecting, “Was the year well-lived despite the chaos of the pandemic?” Admittedly, the first response was “no”, as it’s easy to focus on the social distancing, not spending in-person time with those we love, stay at home orders, loved ones with Covid-19, and the list goes on. BUT, upon deeper reflection actually, YES, there are many positives that have come out of these unusual, unprecedented, stressful and anxious days.
If you’ve followed our blog, you know that our interest and passion revolves around taking a solution-focused approach to practice (and life), which means acknowledging what has gone well, acknowledging how you achieved that success, then identifying how to do more of that and build upon that moving forward.
TODAY’S WORD IS WELL-LIVED
Today we’re sharing with you 4 strategies that have helped us to declare 2020 well-lived. These are strategies that we plan to continue to embrace through the pandemic and beyond so we can continue to declare that even through challenging times life has been well-lived.
1- Be still, be present. During weeks of stay at home orders and working remotely, we’ve spent MUCH more time being present, living in the moment, and pausing to fully appreciate our surroundings and backyard spaces. In doing so, we saw many things we otherwise would likely have missed while zipping through life: hummingbirds in both of our backyards (who knew!), a baby bunny that would sit by Tami’s feet and eat when she was in her “outdoor office”, spectacular sunsets, and then the shift to brilliant fall leaves.
2- Surround yourself with things that bring you joy. This past year more than ever we’ve appreciated the importance of this concept. It doesn’t have to be something big, just something as simple as the bright flowers Tami planted outside her kitchen window that she’d see when she passes by during the day.
3- Find laughter in some way each day. Laughter is good for your health! You can learn more about that in our blog post here . We have intentionally found something to make us laugh each day, whether a GIF, a meme, a funny YouTube video, a Facebook post from our friend Lorena, a cat in a box…you get the idea.
4- Want what you have. As you know, we were avid travelers prior to the pandemic, always in search of a new fresh view and looking forward to what’s next. However, these last 9 months we have embraced the attitude of “want what we have”. Being grateful for exactly what we have. Deb added Christmas lights and heaters to her backyard this year so she can enjoy at home, outdoor dining this holiday season. But she is most grateful that some of her kids have spent time at home this year when they would have normally been living out of town and even out of state.
We look forward to sharing a few more learnings and reflections that the year has brought us personally in our January 13, 2021 blog.
EACH WEEK WE INVITE READERS TO PARTICIPATE IN A SOLUTION-FOCUSED CHALLENGE… As you close out the year with your clients with diabetes, we challenge you to spend a few minutes with them reflecting on 2020 and identifying one, two or more things big or small that have helped them live well this past year.
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