Every year in early December, I spend some time on what has now become an annual tradition, creating the family calendar. Yes it is an actual thing! A few years ago I was looking for a calendar big enough to hold all the dates and info I wanted, but with a design that I wanted to see every day (as opposed to pictures of cute kittens) and I came across a website that let me create my own calendar. Pick the size, the shape, type, layout, you name it, and then pick the images you want to use too.
After that first one, it became a thing, and now I do it every year (and heaven forbid I forget!). It’s one of my favourite things to do, but it takes quite a lot of time to do it “right” (as in my version of right). Some years when I’ve had less time to spend on calendar creation I’ve noticed I haven’t got as much out of it, so I like to do it properly, which involves going back through all my photos of the year and picking out the best ones, and then digging out some old pictures and finding a few blast from the past pics to add to the mix too. This year the kids helped me with the latter and we found a picture of my sister with hair not dissimilar to Cindy-Lou Who from The Grinch, I’m sure it will make the rounds over the festive season!
Anyway, going through the photos is always lovely as it ends up being almost a year in review type session. It’s a reminder of the happy (and sometimes poignant) times we’ve had, the little things we enjoyed but that we’ve forgotten about now. Our brains are not great at storing all those lovely little memories and playing them back to us because our brains purpose is survival and so we have a negativity bias, which means the brain is programmed to look for problems or issues, rather than the fun stuff. BUT the really important thing to know is that when we do remisince and reflect on something (whether good or bad) we re-live that moment, our brain processes it again in the same way and we have the feelings we had at the time as though they are real again. Now that’s not great if you’re replaying something that upset you as it will keep doing so, so you need to watch out for that. But if you’re replaying happy memories and you can do that more then you’ll feel happier.
You don’t need to be a calendar creator to get this effect either, there’s lots of other ways to be reminded of happy memories, and one came up recently when I was chatting to someone, she’s going to do it, and so am I! At the start of the year you designate a jar for your memories of the year and then regularly write down notable events or memories that you want to savour. Add them in throughout the year and then empty the jar on New Years Eve to help you reflect on all the positive things from the past year.
I’m sure that’s something I’ll enjoy doing with the kids next year so I’m off to find a jar I can put somewhere prominent to remind me to add to it regularly. A resolution that’s easy to stick to and will make me happier is always a good thing in my book!