2022 - Now What?

Here we are several weeks into 2022 and I have a feeling this year’s, “New Year ~ New You,” motto has different connotations. Maybe I should speak for myself. So far to me, this year has a bit of lackluster. It’s more like, ”New Year ~ but it feels the same as 2021 and most of 2020.” I have a bit of a pandemic hangover that never seems to go away. And I’m so over it!

In previous years, I have downloaded www.yearcompass.com , and enjoyed taking the time to review my year just lived and to jot down thoughts/dreams/hopes for the coming year. Here we are late-January and I’m fighting the process. Do I really want to look back at 2021? I’m sure there were some wonderful experiences, i.e. South Padre Island fun, my son getting married, my daughter having a successful first year in college, me turning 50, Sunday Suppers with friends and family, and embracing van life! The not-so-fun experiences of 2021 include, keeping it emotionally together with pandemic uncertainty, my son in Afghanistan as a Marine, my mother’s diagnosis of Glioblastoma, the severity of emotional trauma experienced by my patients has multiplied during the last few years and the necessity of relief was palpable. It has indeed been a year!

One huge set-back has been felt within the past month and has seeped into the new year. In Summer 2021, I decided to return to in-person sessions. I began to feel calmer waters were on the horizon and our new way of living as fully vaccinated individuals was allowing us to resume life as we knew it. Eating indoors, traveling, gathering, working face to face, was seemingly back in full swing. Unfortunately, the highly contagious variant, Omicron, came out in full force mid-December and my in-person sessions have come to a halt. Being a caregiver for my mother increases my need to be Covid-free. Zoom has resumed for all sessions and thankfully it continues to go very well. But I must admit, this pandemic hangover continues. Did I already say how “over it” I am?

I have no idea what’s in store for the “New Year ~ New You” in 2022 but here we go.

Here are some tips that have helped me and hopefully they can provide some comfort to help you keep going:

· Keep your friend/family circle close. Living these past few years in a pandemic, you know who your friends are. You know who you can count on when you need a good laugh. You know who you can trust. Keep sharing. Keep talking when times get rough. You’ll feel better.

· Take a walk. Get outside. Move your body. Dance. Strength train. Even if it’s for 10 minutes...move! You’ll feel better.

· Write/Journal/Paint/Read/Cook. Your creative self is there. You’ll feel better.

· Cry when you need to cry. You’ll feel better.

· Get a good night’s rest. You’ll feel better.

What’s going on in my world these days:

· Currently reading The Invisible Life of Addie Larue

· Daily Wordle

· Recently watched/binged:

Power of the Dog was eventually intense…or as my boyfriend said…slow

Tick-Tick-Boom was a delight

Yellowstone

…And Just Like That