At the stroke of midnight, and onward to the first second of the New Year, we give a toast and wish one another a Happy New Year, and then we send out the text that we saved as draft to forward it to the hundreds of friends in our contact list. That used to be me.
Nowadays I'm just glad that the festive season has given me an excuse to catch up with my close friends over dinner, put down my phone and stop thinking about work for the time-being. After the partying is done, I take a sleep, and wake up the next day feeling... weird. It's a brand new year, but seems like just another day for me.
If it’s really hard to feel hopeful right now, start by just acknowledging that.
If you’re someone who finds it difficult or even feels silly trying to be optimistic right now, know that hope doesn’t necessarily mean thinking that everything will always be amazing. Being hopeful doesn’t have to be about looking for the bright side or deluding ourselves into thinking everything will be just fine. Hope is really just a (realistic) expectation that something good will happen—and that you have some control over it.
For instance, if you lost your job but you’re passionate about a certain cause—animal welfare, reproductive rights, etc—you might find some hope by donating time and effort to those issues while you figure out what your next job might be. If you had to cancel or postpone a wedding, turning to family members and thinking about how much they want to be there on that special day (whenever it is) might give you the hope you need to move forward and keep planning.
Others may find hope comes from their spirituality or a non-spiritual sense of their small place in the larger community. Basically anything that helps remind you of the scope of the world, of your goals, and what (small, perhaps) role you might play in it all can bring a positive sense of what’s to come.
Some tips to help?
Don’t give up on your usual self-care routine. Whatever is bringing you joy or making you feel better right now, stick with it. It could be on a Zoom call with a small group of friends, furthering your exercise or Yoga regimes, or maybe even just Netflix, do whatever makes you happy.
Lean in to honest and authentic relationships. The pandemic has helped me to prioritise my time for the people who matter, and made me draw nearer to people of similar interests, like a support group with like-minded people.
I hope this post helps bring a glimpse of light if you are finding it difficult to be positive for the new year, and know that you are not alone on this journey. When it gets hard, just remember that you only have to get past today, and tomorrow will be a brand new day.
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