End of year blues?
Hello friends, welcome to December! Hey, cheer up! We made it to the last month in year 2017! Isn’t God awesome? In a few days, 2017 will be history and 2018 will be the present reality. However, it’s sad to note that the end of a year can trigger different feelings for different people. The ability to put our thoughts in good perspective is one way to avoid negative feelings of regret, guilt, disappointment, anger, pain, and so on.
When you think about how your life has been so far in the year 2017, how do you feel? If you are like me, you may be feeling that you could have done better. Yes, I could have done better is the natural feeling I have as the year concludes but I am not going to let my mind dwell on the things I didn’t do e.g. writing two books before June and not finding the motivation to go to press, having to disappoint family and friends to hold on to my values, not meeting up with my blogging goals for 2017, allowing myself to be distracted in subtle ways….I could go on but I won’t. It’s a worthless exercise to keep a record of my wrongs because self-love begins with self-forgiveness.
Focusing on the things I didn’t do or I don’t have or could not do, will only lead me toa depressive mood. So what can I do to get off the ‘end of the year depressive mood?
1) I WILL COUNT MY BLESSINGS AND BE GRATEFUL. Will you? If you are managing a mental health diagnosis and you are in the right frame of mind to read this, the first thing to be grateful for is the gift of a sound mind.
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| ‘All that I am is because of who God is to me.” |
Without a healthy mind, I would probably be on bed rest in a psychiatry hospital receiving professional attention. So why won’t I be grateful and thankful? At the beginning of the year, I posted something on my Instagramtimeline: “Take purposeful steps to make this year and crisis-free year for you” This year has been a crisis-freeyear for me mentally. I have had to deal with tough, stressful situations that could have knocked me out of my mind, but somehow I am still here in sound mind! I am so, so, soooo grateful to God for that.
2) REFLECT: Take time out of your busy schedule to connect with yourself and ask yourself real and sincere questions, and take the answers to God in prayer. Reflective thinking helps us to put our thoughts in the right perspective. When you have the right perfective, a balanced view oflife, with deliberate efforts, it becomes easier to retrace your steps and not repeat the same mistakes next time.
3) SPEAK TO GOD: Time spent in reflective thinking is usually a time of reality check. They can be very humbling and emotional. But talking to God about how you feel can help. Sometimes, words would elude you, but you can sing, cry if you want, just be yourself in God’s presence and unburden your heart to Him. Ask Him for His Grace, for His wisdom; ask him to heal your emotions where you are hurting. God answers prayers.
“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” – Psalm 145: 18
“You hear prayers; ALL PEOPLE approach you.” – Psalm 65:2 (emphasis mine)
‘All people’ includes you reading this now. Speak to God about your feelings.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, thank you for EVERYTHING you have done for me in the year 2017. I am grateful. Thank you for the unseen things you did for me, for the gift of a sound mind, for the gift of friends and family, for your love expressed to me in the love that I receive from others. THANK YOU, LORD. I loveand appreciate you.
REFERENCE:
All scriptures are taken from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV)