These Three Things: A New Year Practice
You are already perfect. Take this in. Really take this in, as all around you ideas are popping up about how you should change your life simply because the calendar year shifted. You will still be perfect without learning a new word each day, incorporating meditation into your life, finding balance – it doesn’t exist, or gaining or losing weight. You will still be perfect, because you were born perfect, and it is not up to 2019 to tell you otherwise.
What can happen this year, and what I hope for all of us, is that we become better able to be made available for ourselves and each other. We become more present, with more space to breathe and move. Full of curiosity and passion to better think and create. That we may partner and parent as we are best able. To love deeply and have the space and energy to show up in this life as fully as we would like. This showing up is possible and I think 2019 would agree.
Maintaining a daily practice or ritual can help. Neuroscientists know that ritual, when seemingly purposeful or not, increases our ability to be more present and perform better. It allows our analytic mind to rest and opens the door for our curiosity and creativity to shine. And this, at least for me, helps in showing up and doing so, fully.
So, let’s give it a try and see if having a little more space, a little more breathing room, taking a little more of a pause in our day can get us there. To living more fully. There will no doubt be a lot of work to be done in 2019, as much as each year asks of us. That work will look and feel different for all of us, but I think it will come more easily if we can face it together, fully.
What I want you to know, is that starting this path can be easy. You don’t have to change everything, or anything to start. With These Three Things, I’ve created a way for you to try out a writing practice and see how it fits. Whether it is every day, once a week, or whenever you like. Writing down three things you’ve learned each day can, through the art of ritual and daily practice, help you to show up as you, fully. You, right now. Not you having learned three new languages from now, or having gotten more sleep from now, or having run three miles a day from now. You. As you are, right now. Already, perfectly you. Let’s begin.
These Three Things
by Lisa Anderson Shaffer
A journal for the thoughtful observer, These Three Things uses insightful prompts and beautiful images to guide readers in the practice of mindful reflection.
This unique guided journal encourages joyful curiosity and thoughtful reflection, centered on three things you've learned over the course of your day. Alongside selected reflections from the author, prompts encourage you to take a moment of focus, while beautiful, full-color photographs will inspire you to view your environment with fresh eyes.
This airy, modern journal offers opportunities to reflect, gain inspiration, and experience new things. Using the ongoing art project of author Lisa Anderson Shaffer as a jumping off point, this process of intentional reflection is an accessible, attainable way to stop time, look within, and identify what's truly important. Paired with unique images and thought-provoking insights, the prompts in These Three Things will uplift and focus, guiding you to feel a sense of purpose at the day's end. In an uncertain world, this meditative practice is an invitation to be curious, to have hope, and to be open to what the day can bring.