It’s easy to look back on a year and think “well that was bad”. Some times a year was just harder than others have been, but chances are that at least some of those 365 days were good days.
We tend to dwell on and remember the negative things more than the positives, so this is a nice way to end the year with a smile and remember that it wasn’t all bad. A memory jar is really helpful when you’ve had a difficult year, to look back at and remember that even when things are tough, there was still good times in between.
All you need for a memory jar is an empty jar and some paper. Starting January first write a little note with the date after a good days or moment and put it in the jar, throughout the year the jar will start to fill up, and you can open it New Years Eve and look back on the past year. You might have forgoten about some of the notes you put in, and it doesn’t have to be extravagant either, even a little summary of a cinema trip or getting coffee with a friend counts. Life’s all about the little things.
Every year I take out my notes and after I’ve read them I put them into an evelope with the date on it. I started mine in 2014 and all the envelopes are stored in a very nostaligic scrap book. Some people organise each year by dates and put the whole year’s worth of memories into little boxes, I’m not that organised but it’s about finding what works for you.
Maybe one day when I’m old I’ll have a look back at the notes from my 20s and remember I had some really good times.