Words of inspiration from Dawlish-based psychotherapist and life coach Jody Merelle

One of the most helpful things I learnt in my mental health training was that we are each in charge of what we choose to think about and focus on.

Whilst we can’t control many of the things that happen around us or the opinions of others, we can become masters of what we choose to focus on ourselves.

This is one of the things I always remember as I look back at the end of each year.

I have found it can be really helpful to make a conscious choice as to how you wish to remember the past 12 months.

Certain major events will remain in our memories regardless.

Births, deaths, big milestones, serious illnesses and the ending of relationships to name but a few.

But over and above this kind of major event, there will be many small details that will be lost if we don’t make a conscious effort to remember them.

As the year now draws to a close you might like to ask yourself some of the following questions.

What good decisions have you made over the past twelve months?

What can you feel proud about?

What important things do you know now that you didn’t know a year ago?

Who have you enjoyed spending time with?

When did you laugh the most in 2021?

It may well be that you weren’t able to have a holiday this year because of the pandemic.

If that was the case, what other ways did you find to enjoy your spare time?

For those who have experienced sadness in 2021, who was there to support you when you needed it the most?

My 10-year-old daughter gave me one of the loveliest presents I have ever received for Christmas.

It was an album entitled ‘Memories from 2021.’

She had included photographs of events that were important to her, such as starting in year six at school, visiting the Kent Caverns in Torquay, her first experience of trick or treating at Hallowe’en and seeing an Abba tribute band dressed in 70s outfits.

Most of these I would have remembered, but the book also had pictures of the children playing in a paddling pool in the backyard during isolation, going swimming at the pool in Dawlish and making a dreamboard at home together.

These are details I may well not have remembered about 2021 but will now be treasured when I look back on the year just gone.

Because of the continued effects of the pandemic, our actual 2021 was probably quite different from the year that most of us expected or hoped for twelve months ago.

If I wanted to, I could write a long list of all the things that have been difficult or challenging in our family this year.

I am sure that almost every other family could do the same.

But I have learnt that choosing to remember the positive moments, especially the ‘small’ things that can easily be forgotten, encourages fond memories to prevail rather than bitter ones.

With this in mind, spending even just a few minutes this week recording the year’s highlights, successes, important people, new acquaintances and things that made you smile could be a good way of saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming in the new one.