Lest you think New Year’s Resolutions as a practice is a 20th-century innovation, the following information may surprise you. Over 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians made promises to their gods right after the start of their new year during a 12-day festival known as Akitu. The promises were to pay down debts and return borrowed things, which seems a bit more socially conscious than today’s modern promises to eat less in the next year and other personal improvement issues.
The Romans also followed the practice of new year promises. When Julius Caesar created a new calendar, he started the new year in January, named after their god Janus, in 46 B.C. Janus was the Roman god of new beginnings and transition, so it made sense that promises to start anew were made in this month. The Middle Ages saw the knights of old making chivalrous vows of valor, and of a decidedly more religious nature than paying old debts.
Today, year-end reflection is a traditional pastime associated with New Year’s Eve celebrations. Many people write New Year’s Resolutions, many of which are forgotten before Easter rolls around. The modern practice of reflecting on the year that has passed is now nonreligious in nature. And the promises most people make are pledges to themselves for personal improvement, rather than promises to temperamental gods or the traditional church. While you will not find the words New Year’s Resolutions in the Christian Bible, scripture tells the faithful to examine their lives regularly and to seek God’s help in their efforts to become more spiritual each day.
Psychologists see modern New Year’s Resolutions as personal statements of goals that people want to accomplish. The problem is that most people set goals that are too large to accomplish in a reasonable time limit in the coming year. So, they fail.
Reflecting on the Year
Reflecting on the year that has passed is an activity that incorporates reviewing personal accomplishments, identifying challenges, and taking stock of the lessons learned from those challenges. It is a way to identify those goals that went well and analyze the things that should be designed differently next year. A year-end reflection should be reduced to writing and managed in a nonjudgmental way. The act of reflection is meant to help gain an understanding of why the goal may have failed or how the end goal should move. The process helps you acknowledge personal growth, express thankfulness for the goals attained, and set new goals for the future.
Here are a few suggestions that may help improve your year-end reflection process, focus on how things changed, and get a better picture of who you are now:
- Pick a safe, quiet place where you can practice mindfulness and enjoy the process without risking sensory overload.
- Give yourself the gift of time to reflect on and remember events and the goals from the last year.
- Gather photos, calendars, journals, and social media posts to help you remember everything from your busy year.
- Create a list of major events, successes, and challenges from last year.
- List your accomplishments and your failures without being judgmental. Just the facts, please.
- This step is the appropriate time to analyze the successes, second-guess the failures, and decide how to do things differently next time.
- Celebrate personal growth achievements.
- Identify how goal priorities may have shifted.
- Make a list of everything that made you feel grateful last year.
- Create fundamentals that will guide the plans for the year ahead.
- Identify areas to improve next year and set both short-term and long-term goals.
Take this time to reflect on the progress of your mental health journey and on your self-care practices. Be kind to yourself, make honest assessments of the past year’s progress, and always remain nonjudgmental.
The Roles Faith and Gratitude Play in Reflection
Faith and gratitude both play important roles in reflections. They uplift hopes for the future. They create positivity. Gratitude keeps individuals grounded and aware of the blessings that have flowed to them and the achievements that have flowed from them.
A year-end review shows that faith provides:
- The individual with the strength to face challenges and guide them on the path to resilience and a quiet mind,
- A source of strength through the peaks and valleys faced during the mental health journey,
- The source for knowing that a higher power guides the path to navigate challenges,
- The ability to reframe the difficulties encountered in life to a more positive perspective as lessons learned,
- The seeker with a path toward resilience that encourages trust in the future,
- Encouragement to reflect on an individual’s spiritual growth, their increased commitment to prayer and other faith practices, and to celebrate those events and
- Motivation for hopefulness that renews spiritual energy and increases trust in God’s plan.
As a complement to faith, gratitude:
- Shifts the frame of mind from anxiety and remorse to positivity and rejoicing
- Encourages celebration of significant events along the mental health journey, and celebrates relationships
- Increases the support of the community and strengthens interpersonal bonds by expressing gratitude to others for their support
- Increase happiness and feelings of overall well-being through daily declarations
- Leads to a positive frame of mind that takes meaningful actions, such as setting new goals and nurturing social connections in the new year.
The Role Spiritual Growth Plays in Reflections
In biblical terms, growing more like Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed is possible with the support of the Holy Spirit. Becoming more like the Savior means emulating the spiritual fruit in daily life; that is, love, kindness, patience, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, peace, and joy. The term spiritual fruit comes from St. Paul’s letter to Galatians, identifying the positive traits that the faithful grow into when they believe in the Holy Spirit. The term also means decreasing acts of the flesh.
Growing the spirit means maturing into a deeper knowledge of God, even if understanding it all eludes the human mind. The path to this deeper understanding and growth is through Bible studies, prayer, fellowship within the faith community, repentance, and confession of sins. Some traditional Christian faiths include baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment as the foundations. Christians must understand that growing closer to God is intentional by nature. Faith demands a life of service, sharing faith, supporting the church, and other causes. Since the Holy Spirit works through the church’s believers, faith demands that those believers connect with other Christians to expand the community.
Faith communities accept three stages of a spiritual life:
- Purgative – Beginning a life of prayer and committing to faith practices.
- Illuminative – Deepening mental prayers, increasing virtues, and serving God.
- Unitive – Living in an anxiety-free and joyous state, with a deep and abiding union with God.
For the faithful, then, a period of reflection lights their path forward to enlightenment – or the year-end review may show the way they have departed from the true path. Losses during the previous year can become a triggering event for an awakening to the need to concentrate more on expanding their faith. It is a time for believers to assess their personal stage of faithful life and the behavioral
to reflect on how well a person has followed Christian teachings and reached for a better understanding of Christian beliefs through their everyday life. The new year also brings an opportunity to correct course if necessary.
How Psychotherapy Reflects Spiritual Growth
Refinery Counseling Services, LLC (RCS) is a therapy practice with a faith foundation. Our therapists understand that mental health healing touches the soul, the heart, and helps to integrate the mind. For many people, faith is an important part of their identity. They want a psychotherapy practice that acknowledges and nurtures their spiritual component as well as their emotional component.
Our faith foundation is what makes RCS stand apart from other therapy practices. Whether you face anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, personal relationship issues, or questions about faith or identity, we instill our sessions with compassion, respect, and purpose throughout your mental health journey.
Our firm’s mission is to empower every client to grow and heal on their personal mental health journey. We commit ourselves to providing compassionate support and the resources needed to accomplish their goals. If you or someone you know is considering mental health therapy, please contact us today. Our friendly staff will be happy to schedule a free, initial consultation for you with one of our licensed therapists. Our therapists have years of clinical experience to help you on your journey. Your therapist will assess your current condition, ask about your history, and talk to you about your needs and goals. Then, your therapist will recommend the best treatment plan for you, tailored to address those needs and goals.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
