Summer SELF-Renewal: 4 Essential Aspects to Realign with What Matters Most
Springtime ushers in the renewal of nature. Flowers start to bloom. Barren tree branches start to fill in. Lawns awaken. And the pollinators start buzzing about, reminding us all of their importance to our livelihood.
Renewal is evident in nature in the Spring for us all to see and rejoice in…or possibly despise if you have allergies. 🤧 But renewal isn’t limited to nature or the Spring for that matter. Summer is an even better time to choose to renew ourselves and realign with what matters most.
The Benefits of Renewal
Each new year, many of us set resolutions or identify a word/theme to help us achieve goals we’ve identified for ourselves. But as we know, all too well, most resolutions fall by the wayside within just a few weeks. We have incredible motivation only to see it wane well before March.
I don’t know about you, but I struggle sometimes to execute and live the values I say are important to me. For example, my 2024 word of the year is Connection. So I’m eager to practice connecting things in my life. Whether it be to connect deeper with myself or with others, be more present in my experiences, or connect the dots of seemingly disparate things, I want to CONNECT more this year. But life gets lifey and I can get caught up in the responsibilities of life and lose sight of my interest in connecting on a deeper level.
I know I’m not alone in getting distracted from the things I say are important! ;)
When we tend to get distracted, it’s easy to give up on those goals we once said were important to us. What better time is there than the middle of the year to check in with ourselves about what matters most to us? Renewing ourselves can look like a recommitment to resolutions or words/theme we set at the beginning of the year. It can also take shape as rededicating to relationships or causes. Or, it can take on a rebirth vibe where you start something completely new!
“Self-leadership is essential to us living a life we choose, not one we tolerate.”
So how do we go about this renewal?
So glad you asked!
Let’s use SELF as the acronym to guide us through the four necessary elements to renew ourselves and align with what matters most.
Renew Your S.E.L.F.
STORIES
Take stock of the stories (or narratives) you’re telling yourself these days. Are the internal messages you have on repeat ones that you WANT to hear? Are they intentional? Or are they often ones that don’t serve you or your relationships in a positive manner? Renew the stories that feel empowering, loving, and motivating. You deserve to hear from your inner cheerleader more than your critic.
ENERGY
Our energetic makeup comes from a variety of sources, including our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Our environment and self-talk matter too! Consider the wholeness of all that contributes to and detracts from your energy and make changes as you desire and are able.
Consider assessing…
Level of interest in existing goals/tasks - Is what you’re working toward fun or a drag?
Your physical environment - Is it conducive to creating peace or overwhelm?
How you tend to your body - What’s one small thing you can do to honor the vessel you’ve been given?
Your accomplishments - You do SO much that you dismiss or overlook as being important! If you don’t acknowledge what you do, who will?
We often can’t make a lot of change at once, but we often can make small changes that can have significant benefits over time.
LEADERSHIP
All moms are leaders. In fact, every single human is a leader. Self-leadership is essential to us living a life we choose, not one we tolerate. In that vein, renew your commitment to being the leader of your life. In doing so you can create a life you WANT and more easily identify ways you can lead yourself toward success. Sometimes this shift in thinking is all we need to make desired change.
“Whether we know it or not, our lives are acts of imagination and the world is continually re-imagined through us.”
FAITH
When we hear the word “faith,” we often equate it to religion, but it doesn’t have to. If you practice a certain religion, consider your relationship to your faith today and determine if there’s any level of renewal that could be of benefit. Those for whom religion is in question or out of the question entirely can still consider renewal of faith in themselves and/or to a higher power or a divine order of things. It’s easy to slip into the weeds of daily life and get overwhelmed and lose sight of the bigger picture. Renewal in ourselves to figure things out and to doing our best each day can offer us a fresh perspective that allows us to access more peace than chaos.
Summary
Life gets hectic and we can all get distracted from the things that matter most. Leverage the summer months as a time to assess where and how you can renew yourself. Doing so can create motivation and connection to the people and things that light you up and make life meaningful and interesting! When we choose to renew ourselves, we make more room in our lives for ourselves to matter and contribute to the renewal of those around us too.
