'Tis the Season to Reflect & Refresh

December — the month with extra sweet treats laying around, catchy carols playing on the radio (or annoying, depending on your perspective!) and last minute shopping for those holiday gifts you promised yourself you would’ve gotten earlier. Among all the chaos of the holidays, some of us also find moments for reflection on the year that’s been. 

Part of our Inclusion & Belonging Membership Journey, our December Membership conversation, ‘Reflect & Refresh’, created a dedicated space for people to come together to reflect on 2022.

About Reflect & Refresh

Life goes by fast. We often forget to take a moment to pause and reflect. A moment to acknowledge the challenges we’ve faced, the things we’ve achieved, and the ways we’ve grown. This is a conversation to bring people together. A space to reflect, rejoice, laugh, cry, or all of the above. When we take time to process, we can come away feeling refreshed, energized, connected — and ready for what’s next.

Now let's reflect & refresh...

This month, we hosted our Reflect & Refresh conversation with an incredible group of people where we shared moments we are proud of, lessons we learned and ways we plan to grow in the coming year. Smiles. Laughs. Tears. Sighs of relief. They all were felt as we shared our reflections with vulnerability.

We beamed with joy as we heard of one another’s engagements, promotions, family milestones and accomplishments. And we held space for each other to share stories of struggling with depression and anxiety, losing loved ones and navigating challenging relationships.

After 60 minutes of meaningful reflection, we welcomed a special guest, Preeti Bhat, a Certified Teacher at The Art of Living who guided us through a meditation session. Preeti taught us breathing techniques to calm down our nervous system, allowing us to enter a tranquil state of deep relaxation.

(Side note: a number of our team members here at Inclusivv are big fans of meditation and relaxation techniques to support more mindful work, parenting, and relationships, with some of us having a dedicated daily practice, others having a ‘very occasional’ practice, and some who have used these tools to get through a stressful time, season or life event. Some apps that our Inclusivv team members recommend include Headspace and Insight Timer. We invite you to check them out!)

We left the conversation feeling relaxed and reinvigorated to continue to learn and grow as individuals. And the takeaways were remarkable:

"I feel empowered with every Inclusivv session. I loved the meditation class today. I will apply the concept on every break every day from now on. :)"

"I really like the open platform without being judged."

"The conversations we had were very touching, heartwarming, insightful and meaningful. I feel so supported by other attendees and inspired as well."

Frequently having moments like this for reflection allow us to learn about ourselves, hone in on areas for growth and become better leaders, teammates, friends and partners. When we’re busy looking at the mountains up ahead, we can forget to count the mountains we’ve already climbed. 

If you want to experience the Reflect & Refresh conversation and other topics on our Inclusion & Belonging Membership Journey, visit here.