While roadside farmer’s markets are bursting with the fruits – and vegetables – of a bountiful harvest, you have the opportunity to celebrate a more personal milestone this fall.
As the daylight dwindles and a bit of autumn chill creeps into the air, it’s the perfect time to reflect on your “inner harvest” – a compilation of all the achievements and key experiences you’ve collected since this year began. To help you recognize your growth on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels, fold a piece of paper into quadrants and give each a heading: Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit.
Now start back in January – when many greet the New Year as an opportunity to set new goals. Sure, we can tend to be a bit optimistic when the calendar presents us with a clean slate. But in reflection, which of those ideas or commitments you vowed to do have stuck? What did you intend to do to enrich any of those four areas of your life, and you persevered? Jot them down in the appropriate quadrant.
Now think back to the Spring, the season of new growth. What projects or concepts “took root” for you back then? Write those down in the corresponding quadrant, too. Donating gently used clothes to Goodwill could give you an emotional boost. You nourished your body if you started or increased your daily exercise commitment. Did you sign up for a yoga class, or are you taking your dog for longer walks? How about increasing the percentage of raw foods you eat daily? Those all definitely count.
That new form of meditation that makes you feel like a million bucks is a spiritual gain. And reading an inspirational book you’ve heard about fits nicely in both the “mental” and “spiritual” categories.
As you mindfully review the year to date and start to tally up this introspective “inner harvest,” you’ll discover many ways you enriched your life.
So far we’ve talked about intentional actions – but sometimes, the most rewarding and powerful fruits of our labor come from chance happenings.
Think about any time in the past few months when a friend, neighbor or even total stranger was in need. When you lent an ear, a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on, you were also investing positive energy into your own life on emotional and spiritual levels.
When you’ve faced a challenging opportunity with grace, faith, patience and optimism, likewise, you were blessing yourself and everyone around you with the richness of spirit that spills over into all four categories on your page. Even the direst circumstance contains a gift of some sort – even if that gift is being able to recognize a similar situation in the future, and now knowing how to avoid it.
This ‘moving meditation’ of an exercise will point out to you, in black and white, all that you’ve learned, achieved and experienced so far in 2014. Your bountiful list is proof of all the blessings in your life, and a perfect way to express gratitude in a deep, heart-centered way. In fact, why not make this “inner harvest” an annual fall tradition. You’ll find yourself contemplating it, and celebrating the opportunity to make it count, all year long.
Immerse yourself in gratitude when you cleanse your body, quiet your mind and rejuvenate your spirit at the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego and Austin, Texas. We can help you achieve your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual goals for optimal health. Visit our website at www.optimumhealth.org , and call us at (800) 993-4325 to make your reservation.