Looking Ahead With Positivity
What I read: How to Find Happiness When You Reflect on the Past Year by Kira M. Newman for Greater Good Magazine. Published December 29, 2022.
As I write this, 2023 is on the horizon. I’m hoping for a good new year. Not the stock positive affirmation type of hope, but honest hope. Hope for my own life to be better. Hope for your life to be better. Hope that my community and country will be better. Hope that the world situation and everyone around the globe has a better life.
Living in hope is difficult sometimes. Let’s face it, we’ve had a bumpy few years. It’s still probably going to be bumpy, but is there really any viable option but to maintain hope and work towards happiness? Happiness is what we all want. For ourselves. For our friends and family. For everyone around us and throughout the world. Happy people make the world around them happier.
But, the road to happiness starts with ourselves. So, as we all embark on this new adventure of 2023, taking some time to center and reflect seems prudent.
I’m not a big fan of using the new year to set big stretch goals or make significant resolutions. We’ve all seen how those fizzle out most of the time.
I’ve written various articles about ways to proceed through life to make our days feel successful and meaningful. One of the most popular has been Setting Minimum Daily Requirements to Relieve Productivity Stress and maybe you’ll find that one useful too. Most days I still use the strategy outlined in that article.
But, as the article that spawned this post states, taking some time now to reflect on the past year can be truly beneficial.
The article mentions Australian researchers who recruited 300+ young adults for a study. The participants each spent five minutes reflecting on a particular memory, from one of four categories: problem-solving; identity; bitterness; and there was a control group who just thought about any memory that came to mind.
Researchers wanted to see if self-reflection affected people’s feelings of well-being, emotional state, self-esteem, optimism, self-efficacy, and sense of meaning. They had participants write about those self-reflections.
It was no surprise to me when I read that the bitterness group who reflected on a memory of a negative event in their lives that involved conflict, disappointment in themselves, or regret saw no changes. Nor did the control group who just randomly thought about any memory. But those who reflected on problem-solving when they dealt well with a challenge, and those who reflected on identity, a memory of something that shaped who they currently were, did see positive changes.
Thinking about problem-solving and identity-related memories increased participants’ self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of meaning in life. Those who reflected on problem-solving reported decreased negative emotions, while those who reminisced about identity reported increased positive emotions.
“When an individual recalls a time they successfully coped with adversity, a perception of themselves as being efficacious and able to overcome challenges may be activated and strengthened,” explain David John Hallford and David Mellor of Deakin University. “The recall of self-defining events that shaped the development of one’s identity may increase perceptions of meaning and purpose in life.”
That’s certainly good information for us all to use as we approach the new year. Reflecting on our problem-solving successes and meaningful experiences that shaped us for the better can create a good foundation to proceed into the year from a positive perspective.
Another study found that writing or talking about negative past experiences helps us work through them better than if we just remember them. Maybe this is one of the reasons so many people recommend journaling as an effective way to improve our lives. The research backs that up. I find journaling occasionally does help me.
Bitterness and negativity about the past isn’t helpful for moving forward. It’s so easy to get caught up in constant negative ruminations, but resisting that tendency is wise. Self-reflection can give us the power to frame our lives in more positive ways and give us the resilience and courage to try exploring new ways of being and new self-improvement activities to make our new year better.
If you’ve been one of my readers this past year, thanks for continuing to read my musings. If you’re new to my blog, welcome. For everyone reading this, I wish for you a remarkable new year full of happiness, fulfillment, and meaning.
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