This week, we’re taking a look back at our entire year of wisdom and learnings from our blog, Mindful Matter. From Intention and Compassion to Wellness and Integrity (and more!), our writers dug deep into our monthly themes to share their experiences and insight. Here are a few posts we especially love (and hope you do too!): 

Begin with intention. “A question that I like to ask myself when I feel buried in micromanaging the tasks of everyday life is ‘What’s important here?’ It’s a question that can be asked about a task, a meeting, an event, a day, a month, or even a year. What I’m asking myself, at a higher level, is what really matters for a particular point in time.”

Read this post from our month of Intention all about establishing overarching themes and goals can influence our everyday habits and decisions.

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Together in grief and joy. “What you give me, my companions in grief, is freedom to be emotional and freedom to be silent. You give me permission to express my grief in any way that I need, and you will not judge but listen. You give me fellowship as you share your grief. Knowing that we’re in the same boat steadies me.”

Read this beautiful meditation on grief and the support that lifts us up from it. From our month of Compassion.

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Rest well. “Maybe you’ll wake up with some grand idea or solution to what's bothering you. Maybe not. Maybe it’ll take weeks to reach you. Maybe it will take a lot of personal work and pain to get there. But letting it go for the moment is a way that helps relinquish our unhealthy relationship with worry, fear, sadness and doubt.”

Read this wisdom-filled post from our month all about Wellness.

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Facing fear. “Courage is easier to muster when we have a strong foundation of self esteem formed and nourished by encouragement, enjoyment and positive messages about our natural strengths and talents. Creativity is not a luxury or a reward for compliance and good behavior. It isn’t an added extra. It’s central to human life…”

Read this post from our month of Creativity on how sometimes our greatest fears in life can also bring about the greatest, most meaningful rewards.

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Looking inward in order to move forward. “But looking over the edge was something I terribly feared. Diving head on into murky emotional waters would require a lot of steady self-care, ease of heart, compassion, and awareness. I later learned it would also require a lot of rest and a strong sense of community too. Going it alone, as I intended, wouldn’t cut it. And that’s because I didn’t realize the significant role that grieving played in the story of resilience.”

Read as one writer reflects on trauma and healing for our month of Resilience.

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