Welcoming 2025
The countdown is on as we begin to say goodbye to 2024 and HELLO to 2025!
The New Year represents a clean slate or a feeling of starting over. We often reflect on what has been and what we are hoping could be as we create resolutions, engage in goal setting, and desire change.
During this time the media we consume may also help shape what we believe is a good resolution. You may start to see promotions for plans and products alongside taglines about lifestyle changes. You may start to read captions that say ‘New Year, New Me,’ ‘New Year, Who this?’ The implication is there was something wrong with the former version and that former version requires an entirely new self.
What we sometimes forget in the desire to transform ourselves is that we are still humans balancing all things in life and doing the best that we can do.
Resolutions, goal setting and a desire for change are not negative things. Rather it is our intention and implementation that can be unhealthy or difficult to maintain. Let’s look at the definition of resolution: a firm decision to do or not do something.
A firm decision.
How rigid. How unforgiving.
When creating a resolution we can also create inflexible expectations. Expectations that are unrealistic and do not allow for our humanness to surface or to be taken care of. When we disappoint ourselves via failure to adhere to our resolution we can create negative cognitive patterns or enhance established core beliefs.
Instead, what if we challenge ourselves to embody a single word for the New Year?
This practice still engages our need to reflect while also encouraging manifestation. Identifying a single word allows us the opportunity to develop our own definition, our own parameters while ditching extreme structure and standards.
Resolutions say that you will stop eating chocolate and work out five times per week. They are specific goals with behavioral modifications.
Identifying a singular word means aligning with health, which could represent a desire to fall back in love with movement or find balance with work, hobbies, and personal life. The word serves as a constant companion.
Below are some examples of words that I have chosen to embody over the years:
Adventurous
Say ‘yes’ to more opportunities, events, gatherings and spaces instead of operating out of fear of failure or fear of not being good enough. Say ‘yes’ to happiness without ‘what if’s’ or worrying about right and wrong.
Unfiltered
It’s the year to be unapologetically and undeniably YOU. No filter, no cover, no hiding, no faking and no becoming a chameleon. Believe that those who see your magic will stay and those who don’t were never yours.
Trust
To a year of truly trusting the self. Trusting my body. Trusting my mind. Trusting my process. Trusting my health. Trusting my path. This is a year where I will allow myself patience and grace while navigating the unknown all the while maintaining trust that I will figure it out and I will be okay.
Take time to reflect on something that you would like to embody in 2025.
Maybe it’s balance.
Maybe it’s health.
Maybe it’s connection.
Now, what does this word mean to YOU? Write it down in a place that is accessible.
Allow yourself the freedom to grow in this and towards this throughout the year.
Happy New Year!
