A Month of Reflection – zen habits zen habits

By Leo Babauta

We’re getting into the final month of the 12 months, and for many people, it’s a darker and quieter season.

It’s the right time for reflection.

I like to make use of December to deepen into reflection, and in my ​Fearless Residing Academy​, we do a yearly ritual that I name “Sacred Bow” (as in “bow in reverence to your previous 12 months”). On this ritual, we:

• Spend a while reflecting on what we completed, went by, and realized for the previous 12 months
• Get clear on what targets and tasks we fell quick on, and what we will be taught from that
• Envision our coming 12 months, with targets and intentions
• Create construction to make these intentions a actuality

I invite you to ​be a part of us in Fearless Residing Academy​ and be part of this Sacred Bow course of!

On this article, I’ll share some extra methods I prefer to deepen into reflection in December …

Replicate on Life & That means

Life rushes by so quick. Day-to-day, it seems like a dashing river and I barely have time to note the water passing by earlier than it’s gone.

Taking a while in quiet and stillness implies that I can decelerate and mirror on life. On my life, on human life. On what it means, or what I need it to imply.

What have I realized lately that provides to the that means of life for me?

What I’ve been discovering right here recently is a way of sacredness and depth to every second that I usually don’t discover, as a result of I’m so targeted on getting stuff finished or coping with the scenario in entrance of me or letting myself be distracted. After I decelerate into stillness, that depth and sacredness turns into extra accessible to me.

Replicate on My Follow & Progress

I discover the tip of the 12 months an essential time to mirror on what I’ve been working towards with in my life. Have I been deepening into mindfulness, working towards with uncertainty and worry, studying to develop into extra conscious of my patterns as they present up?

That is an ongoing journey of development, and it’s immensely essential that I take time to mirror on it regularly.

What have you ever been working towards recently? What are you studying from that follow? What development have you ever been noticing?

Replicate on Darkness, Stillness & Dying

December is a lovely month to decelerate and mirror on three issues:

1. Darkness: The place I reside now (northern California), December is the darkest month of the 12 months. I discovered that miserable once we moved right here from Guam, and that continued for years after we moved … till current years, after I determined to begin to study my relationship to darkness. It’s a profound reflection for me, and I’m beginning to open to the wonder and surprise of darkness, each exterior of me and inside.
2. Stillness: It’s additionally a month when issues really feel frozen and nonetheless, and I’m studying to embrace that as properly. I’m somebody who likes to maneuver rapidly, however there’s a lot knowledge in stillness. I’ve to follow in opposition to my default tendency. Sitting exterior in stillness, and noticing what reveals up in that stillness, is a follow I resist and love.
3. Dying: As a society, we are likely to worry loss of life. That’s comprehensible. However winter is a loss of life that opens house for brand new life, and I embrace it as an affirmation of life. I mirror on the family members I’ve misplaced, and the way a lot they nonetheless imply to me. I mirror by myself loss of life, and discover a point of acceptance of that.

Do any of those subjects resonate with you?

I encourage you to carve out a while for reflection because the 12 months involves a detailed.

And as soon as once more, for those who’d prefer to be part of the Sacred Bow ritual, I invite you to ​be a part of us in Fearless Residing Academy​!