Every New Year is a time of transition, and for many people that brings with it a time of reflection, planning, and renewed hope. With the challenges we all faced this year, this process may be more important than most other years.

To help guide people in this process, we’re happy to share this simple workbook: Love, Hope & Haikus (a simple g-doc you can print out or copy and use online).

All the activities are optional, even the suggested haiku and poetry activities. Many people are intimidated by the idea of writing, especially poetry, but it also can be a great tool to help people reflect, heal, release, and make choices. Haikus are amongst the simplest form of poem, 3 short simple lines, of 5 syllables, then 7, then 5 syllables, and so might be easier for some people to take a shot with.

Of course how you approach your writing is up to you, but with just a few words you have to be concise. I sometimes like using them to reflect on emotions, or release something I’m holding on to:

What a year we’ve seen
Challenges unimagined
And through it, survived.

Other times, to help me think through what mindset I want to move forward with. With so much unknown about what will happen in 2021, I took some time to think through and write a number of haikus playing around with different approaches. This is my favorite (so far), a continuation from the one above:

What a year we’ll see
Challenges unimagined
And through it, let’s thrive.

And indeed, that’s our hope with our loved ones, with our team, our programs, our community, and the world. Yes, 2021 will be challenging. And yes, let’s work together to help all of us thrive.

Our colleague @bilal also set up this great document, From Mindfulness To Heartfulness to Heartful-Action, with other questions people can think through, alone or with others, to help guide their mind and their heart going forward.

We’re going to share some other updates, guides, and online calls soon to help all of us continue this journey of learning, growth, positivity, meaning, and impact. Please stay tuned at this page for updates, or sign up for our newsletter. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please also share either in the comments or send us an email at: thrive (at) bloom.pm

Big hugs and happy new year!

Munir and the Bloom Team