‘Happy New Year’ they say

Do we say Happy New Year because we just assume everyone enters the year ‘happy’?

Is it more of a manifestation thing, like ‘ this year will be great ; this WILL be a happy year ?’

Or maybe it’s more of a mutual pat on the back, a chant of gratitude like ‘despite everything, we made it here so let’s give thanks to that’.

This time last year Pen2Paper was nothing more than a concept. Now, it’s a concept that materialised. But it hasn’t reached it’s end or hit it’s peak. This year, we need more consistency from myself , more transparency and vulnerability, more collaborations and definitely more recognition. Anyways , let’s dig deep…

I believe there’s often a pattern at the start of every year - a positive one. We consume ourselves with new year resolutions, set plans and goals and just overall lifestyle changes that we expect to implement into our everyday lives from day 1 of the new year. But no one ever talks about the damaging side of it or the pressures it comes with.

You can put a million plans in place, invest time and energy into it and things can still not pan out the way you intended them to. Unfortunately, it’s just not the way the universe is wired , no matter how much preparation beforehand. And despite the promised rebrand, resolutions & folders of plans stored in your Notes app, you can still enter the new year feeling no different than how you did in the last. So I cannot stress how significant it is to be kind to yourself if your new year hasn’t started off the way you intended. Maybe it’s the 6th January and you still haven’t bought a gym membership. Maybe it’s the 20th and you still haven’t managed to achieve that goal of employment within the first month. And maybe you’re still drowning in the trauma you endured from the previous year ; a painful memory you hoped you’d leave behind. The pressure and unrealistic expectation that these goals will be implemented from day 1 can create new year anxiety with a lasting effect on your mindset and outlook on the remainder of the year. Resolutions have no start or expiry date and adjusted plans do not resort to failure.

To be kind to yourself and to your mind is to consume yourself with self love. It’s to extend grace to yourself in times of procrastination, demotivation or sadness. To have a bad start to the year is just ‘that’. A bad day is just a bad day. It does not determine nor does it define what the rest of the year will be and can be for you. Let’s also fast forward to the end of year. You’re looking back at your resolutions and cannot tick off as many as you hoped. It’s times like this that it is pivotal that you see it as motivation for the following year as opposed to failure within yourself — avoid looking inwards at all.

Let’s put it to practice.

• Break down your lists into months, weeks or maybe even checklists for each day - this will make it less overwhelming and help you pace yourself better through the year.

• Instead of a list of new year resolutions, maybe try mood/vision boards - it’s less overwhelming seeing aesthetically pleasing visuals of your goals rather than words on a page

• Instead of a list of things you must achieve, add ‘work towards’ at the start of each goal - if you don’t achieve it but at least attempted, you can still acknowledge it/tick it off

• Letter to yourself at the start of the year - this takes away the pressure and makes it more personal ; you can monitor your growth

Finding your feet at the start of the year is definitely a tricky one and more common than what you’d imagine. Take each day as it comes and handle yourself gently with care. Allow yourself to be consumed in the things you love and enjoy or the people until you slowly begin to feel like yourself again. It’s okay to not be okay ; it’s okay for things to not go to plan. This post was originally intended to be an end of year post, then a start of the year post, but here I am releasing this when I truly have the capacity to do so - and now I know that that’s okay.

Plans will always be adjusted.

This 2023 - ‘ Accept the things you cannot change and change the things you cannot accept’ ✨.