Hi there beautiful Shine From Within family,
What a year it’s been! As we start to wrap up and reflect I thought I would share with you some of the things that we like to do here at Shine From Within so that you can join in at home with your own family.
REFLECT:
Often what happens at this time of year is we go straight into dreaming about the next year without first properly reflecting on beautiful 2016. Sometimes we can feel resistance around looking back, for fear that it might bring up hurtful feelings, embarrassment or feelings of failure. BUT taking the time to look back at the good AND the ‘bad,’ can be SO POWERFUL for growth and learning as we head into a brand new year.
Don’t rush into 2017 without first appreciating the lessons + highlights of 2016.
So how do you constructively and efficiently and consciously reflect on the year? The great news is, this can be a super easy process. And I’ve created an editable PDF worksheet for you to download and fill in yourself to make it super easy (make sure you save the worksheet to your computer before filling it in, and then again after you fill it in, so that all of your work is saved).
Each question on this worksheet is designed to get you thinking and processing the year in a beautiful way so that you’re ready and open for the possibilities of 2017. It has less than 10 questions on it so as not to be another overwhelming task to do at a time when we just need to relax and recoup! It will take you through the process of reflecting on the year in a gentle way and then guide you through to planning. This is equally great for adults and children and can be a great worksheet for the whole family to complete separately and then come back together to share with each other as a group.
PLAN:
One of the questions in this worksheet is ‘How do you want to feel in 2017?’ This is such a powerful questions and comes from the phemonenal work of Danielle La Porte and her Desire Map process. Her theory is that we can often spend so much time wishing and planning to get particular things or achieve particular outcomes, but when you strip all that back you can find that what you’re really searching for is a feeling.
It might be a feeling of lightness or peace.
Perhaps strength or feminine power.
Or it might be a feeling of abundance or freedom.
Focusing on how you want to feel, rather than achieving something in particular, allows for flexibility and openness for that feeling to come into your life in all sorts of forms. It’s also a beautiful way to do a quick check-in. For example, if you decide you want to feel ‘peace’ in 2017 then when making a decision about taking on a new project or going on a holiday you can ask yourself, “will this bring more peace into my life or less?” If going on an overseas holiday to somewhere exotic like Bali will actually only bring more stress into your life at this moment (finances, fitting it in around the kid’s commitments, etc) then you can find another way to bring in peace, such as going on a camping trip or decluttering the home. And at the end of the year it won’t be, ‘did I manage to go on that holiday to Bali?’ but ‘did I feel more PEACE in 2017?’ which can be achieved in an endless amount of ways. Does that make sense?
So when considering how you want to feel for 2017, take the time to write out a few options and remember that you can always change. It’s all up to you.
In terms of PLANNING for the year, we’ve also allowed a space for you to write down one thing you’d like to achieve so that you also have a tangible goal to work towards, perhaps something that you believe will allow you to feel the way you want to feel. If you’d like to go much deeper into planning out what you’d like to achieve in all areas of your life, I can highly recommend these workbooks and planners from Leonie Dawson.
I fill them in each year and get so much joy from the process. It’s also incredible to reflect back on last year’s book and see that everything I write down tends to come true! The power of clarity and dreaming big dreams can never be under-estimated!
DOWNLOAD THE REFLECT + SHINE WORKSHEET ABSOLUTELY FREE HERE.
Here are some of the dreams that came true for us here at Shine From Within this year:
1. Shine From Within Youth Mentor Training launched!
This was a dream that has been perculating for some time, and the more that people got in touch with me about wanting to offer something similar to Shine From Within in their area or wanting to create their own beautiful programs for youth, the more I realised I couldn’t ignore this anymore. So for months I wrote and developed the content, spent hours researching and chatting with these beautiful people who were getting in touch with me to find out exactly what they wanted in a program and this all came to life in April 2016 with our very first intake! The first Youth Mentor Training intake sold out after being open to the public for just a couple of days so that was certainly a wonderful surprise. But the most amazing part of launching this course, has been seeing some of our graduated Youth Mentors actually getting their own unique programs off the ground in their area (some of them pictured below at one of our in-person training days). Not just learning the theory behind it but actually implementing everything and launching their businesses.
// We’ve got Leah who just ran her first workshop yesterday in Adelaide (and is about to move to the Sunshine Coast and run a few of her own workshops up here too!)
// We’ve got Amy who’s running her first workshop in Toowoomba, with Leah, in January.
// We’ve got Michele running programs over in the US.
// We’ve got Gabrielle, running her first workshop in Byron Bay in 2017.
// We’ve got Sabine running her first Core Confidence workshop in Perth in 2017 and already getting into schools too.
// We’ve had Sharyn teach a workshop to our own students on creating mantras and Melinda teach us how to meditate.
// We’ve had Renee support our girls during the September course and take beautiful photos for us (like these ones!) and Aimee run mother-daughter evenings in Medowie, near Newcastle NSW.
And they’re just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head!
Seeing these youth mentors going out into the world with programs that bring their own strengths and passions to the forefront in a way that will support and nurture teen girls has absolutely been the highlight of my year this year.
2. Winning a book deal with Hay House
The other HUGE dream that came true for us this year has been winning a book deal with publishing giant, Hay House (that’s me below with Hay House Australia Director, Leon Nacson!). To know that they believe in our dream of supporting more teen girls to shine and can actually help us to reach many many more girls around the world is absolutely mind-blowing. We’re still writing and will keep you updated on the process. You’ve already been such a great help with this…replying to our emails or social media posts about what you’d love to see in a book for teen girls has helped us to shape the content so that it’s highly practical for today’s teens. So I can’t thank you enough for this.
3. Getting to meet lots of gorgeous girls
We also got to meet and connect with hundreds of more girls this year through school-based presentations and workshops, sisterhood evenings, one-on-one mentoring via Skype or in person, our Tweens Course and week-long Personal Development Course. Every girl that we’ve got to meet has touched our lives in some way and usually the discussions we have with them teach us a thing or two! I’m reminded constantly that when young people are given a safe space to share and connect with one another in a fun environment, they do truly shine.
These 3 dreams came true because others believed in what we’re doing and supported us. In particular, I’m so so grateful to all of our beautiful parents for trusting us with your gorgeous girls. And grateful for our beautiful team of guest teachers, admin stars and more who make it all possible.
So what’s next?
Ahhh well that’s for another post! But I will say this…2017 is going to be HUGE!!
You can book in at an early-bird price for our Tweens Course in April 2017 or our Personal Development course for teens in July 2017 now. You can also register your interest for our next round of Youth Mentor Training and register your interest for our Mother-Daughter retreat in Noosa around Mother’s Day in May. Yayyy!
Wishing you a beautiful Christmas period and a very happy New Year.
Lots of love,
Amanda + the Shine From Within team
xxxxx