Book 13 — A Year of Magical Learning
Reflection Title — 10 Minutes a Day Can Change Your Life
Book — Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly
Book Description — A true story about why we sabotage ourselves, feel overwhelmed, set aside our dreams, and lack the courage to simply be ourselves… and how to start choosing happiness again!
My Reflection:
In Resisting Happiness, the author Matthew Kelly talks about how learning to reflect and pray for 10 minutes a day when he was 16 changed his life. I couldn’t agree more because it did the same for me. We are bombarded everyday with other people’s opinions, thoughts, and guidance on how we should live our lives. It can be overwhelming and confusing. The one voice that most of us never listen to is our own. If you were anything like me, you rarely ever stop to spend time with your own thoughts and work through life on your own. Call it prayer, meditation, talking to God, or just talking to yourself…most of us don’t do it. We listen to everyone and everything else, but our own minds.
That all changed for me the day after my daughter was born and we were in the fight of our lives in the NICU. One of my wife’s friends came by our house and dropped off a book of Daily Reflection called, Trusting God Day by Day, and included a note saying how much this helped them during their own struggles. I was desperate to try anything that could try and keep us balanced and positive in the moment so I read the first daily reflection and shared it with my wife. I had a lot of time on my hands in the NICU so I started to write down my own thoughts about the reflection I read. It literally took me 10 minutes each day. I kept reading the next reflection each day, thinking about it, and then writing my own thoughts. Little did I know that this singular act would go on to change my life. For the first time in my life, I was truly stopping and thinking for myself. I was slowly learning how to process what was going on in my life in my own mind with the help of “God”, my consciousness, or whatever you want to call that beautiful unique thing we have as humans to be able to think about thinking.
It has been a few years since that moment back in the NICU when my own 10 minutes a day of reflection all began. I truly don’t know where I would be without that 10 minutes each morning to think and reflect at this point. I’ve never felt a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in my life and it is only growing each day. I’ve never missed a day and never plan to for the rest of my days if I can help it. 10 minutes a day truly changed my life.
Question: When was the last time you spent 10 minutes with your own thoughts?
Links:
What is The Year of Magical Learning? — An Introduction
YOML Podcast Discussion — Resisting Happiness
