Settling In | New Year Reflections
January has been quiet. Not uneventful, but quiet.
Heavy snows and ice resulted in an hours-long power outage near the beginning of the month, which put that week off to a slower start than I’d planned. I spent the morning huddled at my desk with my journal, a favorite pen, and candles for light. The power was back on by midday, but the forced slow start to the day was an unexpected reset.
I’ve been trying to keep to that slowed-down approach to the rest of the month though. At the beginning of the year, there are all these ideas about what the new year is going to be, and what to do and what to accomplish in the months ahead. Every year, for the first few days of the year, I’m all about recapping goals and thinking ahead optimistically expecting to Do All The Things.
January skies.
Last year, I struggled with a lot of anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm about everything. Big things, little things. If one could be anxious and overwhelmed about it—I was. And generally speaking, January and February have been months where I struggle the most with my anxiety, long before 2021.
I do have a lot of goals for this year, but I’m not trying to conquer all of them in January. It’s been a challenge not to rush into all the new ideas as fast as I can as I usually do.
While I’ve definitely been busy with things that need to be done, I’ve also been conscious to make room for things that allow for time to slow down and recharge and not feel the need to be super productive. Sometimes, that’s reading for an hour or two. Sometimes it’s watching TV or a movie. Sometimes it’s practicing brush lettering or writing in my journal.
I do still feel overwhelmed some days, and there are definitely days when I feel anxious, but it’s a work-in-progress, like anything in life. There’s value in slowing down and finding rest, even if it’s only for a half-hour here and there, and I’m hoping to keep up this “settling in” feeling throughout the year instead of rushing through it.
How has your month been so far?
I'm so sorry you've been feeling overwhelmed. That is the worst feeling. I absolutely loved all your thoughts here. There is this pressure in January to get EVERYTHING done which I think is not always a great approach because we may burn ourselves out before the year has hardly begun! I also like to try to take January a little slower and use it as a time for reflection and settling back into things. It's a good time to rest from the old year and ease myself into the new one so I'm ready to tackle it. We still have an entire ahead of us after all! There is no need to try to take on our ENTIRE yearly goals in one month. Everything you said here is just-- YES. Yes, yes, yes! Such a beautiful way to live in January.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you are able to find much rest and rejuvenation. Happy 2022, dear Jameson! <3