NEW Year resolutions made? Broken already? Or still going well so far? Or maybe, like someone I spoke with recently, you greet the whole idea of making resolutions at the beginning of the year with a snort of derision: "I don’t go in for that sort of thing."

Yet, however, we treat New Year, for most of us it is good to have a time to take stock of ourselves, our relationships and our expectations, and that is best done in the light of our history.

AsGeorge Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – making the same mistakes again and again is not the best way to live. Likewise never noticing when we get things right can mean we waste opportunities to benefit ourselves and others.

Most of us reflect in this way better with a trusted person to listen and act as a sounding board. I have found an Acorn Listening teaching on this to be profoundly true – that bad things not shared grow, good things not shared diminish. This means that sharing our experiences and the feelings with which we respond to them is a very productive thing to do.

This can be done as a form of prayer, not because the Infinite God to whom we reach out needs to be informed but because when we articulate our experiences in that presence we can allow ourselves to be changed – for the better.

The Rev Hilary Young

Priest in charge of Giggleswick, Settle and Rathmell with Wigglesworth