Creating an Inspiration Jar
Recently, I celebrated my birthday. And for my birthday, I created an inspiration jar. I’ve been reflecting a lot on intentional gatherings, and then recently found Priya Parker’s book “The Art of Gathering”, exploring how we meet and why it matters (which I’m thoroughly enjoying by the way!).
This had me thinking about the purpose of my birthday gathering - yes, we were coming together to celebrate my transition into a new decade - but, what else? I wanted it to be more than just a birthday gathering, people awkwardly meeting one another, sitting still for hours.
A lot of what this year has offered me is more authentic connections of growth, support and inspiration. I wanted my birthday celebration to offer this too. So I took a glass jar, tied a big bow on it, and put it at the centre of the dinner table.
I asked my friends to share their favourite inspirational quote, song lyrics, words of wisdom, or what they’d tell their 30 year old self now, by writing it down on a piece of paper and putting it into the jar.
Throughout the evening, the jar made its way around the table where we would, one by one, read the pieces of paper out loud.
This offered some really great starting points for connection as we engaged in conversations beyond small talk - conversations that made you think, nourished your mind and spirit, opened your eyes to different perceptions.
As we close the chapter on 2020, I invite you to create your own inspiration jar if this inspires you. It could be a jar you fill yourself with your favourite inspirational quotes and positive affirmations, it could be love notes you write to yourself, it could be a jar of gratitude, a jar of self care activities that restore you or ask your close friends and family to help you fill it like I did.
So often we fall into the habit of collecting all the things that are wrong in our lives, what we should’ve, would’ve, could’ve done, a list of all of our flaws, why we aren’t good enough for XYZ, and we keep all of this negative energy within us, in an internal jar of sorts. It isn’t always healthy to have this jar filled.
In mindfulness we don’t deny that these challenging emotions exist, but we don’t dwell in it either. We can start to create conditions for calm and insight to arise.
This inspiration jar is an invitation to consciously water the seeds of your own joy, calm, and inspiration. Use it to inspire conversations around the Zoom dinner table this season. Use it to give you hope while you’re navigating challenge and uncertainty.
Two weeks later, I still go to my jar, read one of the notes, and smile 😊
Enjoy creating your own inspiration jar, friends. Let me know in the comments what you end up filling it with!