Are you feeling anxious? Peaceful? Introspective? Determined to roll into the New Year with some novel ideas and changes in your life? It is the time of year when we can feel any, and all of these emotions and they can change within a moment, a day, or a week because of an unexpected circumstance. As we roll into the month of December, it is time to ask, how are you feeling toward the end of the year?
End of the Year Holiday Celebrations
There are holiday celebrations in December like Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, and similar celebrations around the world. I recall the excitement of children in my classroom during my years as an ESL teacher honoring each of these holidays. Students loved learning and experiencing the difference and similarities in all of the holidays. This was during a time when families were allowed and felt comfortable bringing homemade food from different countries and cultures into the classroom for children to try and savor.
We broke piñatas, made decorations to take home in the diverse colors symbolizing each unique cultural holiday, and danced and sang songs to celebrate. There is nothing more innocent than the smiles from young children delighting in the celebrations from around the world. I loved the variety of nationalities represented. An exhausted teacher went home at the end of these full days with a heart full of memories.
Do Holidays Make You Feel Anxious?
I believe they can make any of us feel anxious in varying degrees. Did I buy the right present or waste my money? Will Uncle Henry be the “pain at the party” again this year? Will I come home sick after hugging all my relatives and traveling on a flight crammed with people during flu season? By the way, I had DIEP flap breast reconstruction at the beginning of December in 2014. What about the decorations I put up every year that I normally spend two full days laboring over to make the house sparkle? I had to realign my December decorating compass and downgrade my need to decorate every nook and cranny of my home in 2014. I felt anxious about how this holiday detail would affect my Christmas.
Does December Make You Feel Peaceful, Introspective?
By the end of the year, with all of these holidays taking place and many of us experiencing shorter daylight hours and chilled evenings, it gives us time to sit quietly with wistful thoughts of the months that passed in the year.
I propose you do this. Sit quietly, alone, with a warm beverage and begin thinking about all the positive things that happened to you this past year. We are slammed daily with a barrage of unwelcome news through the media and generally angry people in crowded spaces or sitting in traffic. These times and spaces make us anxious. Be intentional about your gratitude. Did you meet someone new this year who inspired you? What things did you accomplish this year that improved your life or those around you?
- Take off a few pounds?
- Start writing a journal every day?
- Watch a child complete their formal education?
- Begin a new job?
- Retire and start an encore career?
Take Time to Reassess Your Feelings Toward the End of the Year
It is a natural process to look back at the year in December. Take the time to acknowledge and to a self-check-in to see how you are feeling as we close out another year. Get out a notebook and pen or sit at your computer to write down the flow of feelings, immersing yourself in what happened to you this past year. Honor yourself with this investment. Do it daily during December at the beginning or end of each day. Maybe you only have time to do it on a quiet day during your week. Choose to purposely do this end of the year activity.
At the end of December, on the last day, read the ideas that generated in your mind and transformed into words on paper or laptop. Observe the daily changes. Take note of the ebb and flow of emotions and feelings to assess how you are feeling toward the end of the year. It might be the impetus of change as you roll into the New Year.
