Goodbye 2024 and Christmas Loveliness, Hello 2025 and ugh, January
My plan to make January suck less
I don’t know what your year was like, maybe it was the best ever, maybe it was the worst, or maybe like lots of people, it was just another year, some good bits, some bad. As for me, it was somewhere in the middle. Loads of beautiful experiences, trips, and time spent with our favourite people. Though also loads of busyness, not enough rest, and that time I caught nits… not so great.
Whatever this year was like, we are nevertheless going into a new one. 2025 is coming tomorrow, and only God knows what is coming for each one of us. What I do know, is that January in particular, can be hard regardless of our circumstances. We go from the most magical, sparkly feel-good month of the year, to the darkest and coldest. Coupled with the supposed need to reinvent ourselves as one year rolls into the other, it can be a tough time. The 20th is dubbed ‘Blue Monday’ for goodness sake, apparently the most depressing day of the year. Well, I’m not having it.
I am going to be trying something this year to hopefully combat this. I’m (not very originally) calling it January Joy. This plan it two-fold. I want to seek out and notice the little moments of joy in my every day, be it a great sandwich, or a lovely voice note from a friend, and I want to create my own joy too. Here’s the plan if you would like to join in:
Every day I am going to notice, and record at least three good things that brought me joy that day. I will be noting these in my journal, but you could pop them in your Notes app if you’re not a pen and paper person. I am also going to find ways to make January special, to keep it cozy, to stave off those winter blues. My Christmas tree came down yesterday for example, but the fairy lights have gone up around my window, where they will stay until it is light when I come home again.
There is good backing for this practice. Seeking, noticing and recording positive moments in our lives actually rewires our brains after a while. It starts searching for the good and the joyful almost without us having to think about it. A young person I worked with this year after a bereavement tried this practice, and it completely changed their outlook, and they found that while the sadness wasn’t gone, their mind equally focused on the sweet things that happened to them day to day. The thing is that when life is at its hardest, so is finding the joy. But in doing so, the practice is that much more impactful. We don’t have to pretend that the bad or sad isn’t there, but just acknowledge the strange truth that in the darkness of life, even in the month of January, there is still joy to be found.
So, why not give it a try with me? I’ll likely post a little about this on my socials, with the hashtag #januaryjoy, and I’ll do a little write up here when the month is up. Please do join in and tag me where you post, these things are always best done in community.
I hope you have exactly the New Year you need, whatever that looks like. We will be playing games with friends and eating fondue, perhaps something else to bring into January. Who can’t feel joy with a mouthful of melted cheese?