“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Yeah, it’s a cliché, I know. But that ole saying is also absolutely true.
This is a new year. This is a new chapter for all of us. We can reset and restart at any time.
These past two years have been filled with grief, loss, disappointment, uncertainty and hardship. But they’ve also been filled with beautiful connections to people we love, new inspirations, lots of reflections and a profound sense of how precious our lives are.
The global pandemic has shaken us to the core. But we are resilient! We can use 2022 as a chance to re-emerge out of fear and hiding and jump start what’s next for us.
How to Re-Start?
The first thing we need to do is to take charge of how we are thinking about ourselves, our lives and the world. We can intentionally choose to believe that there is so much good in the world and inside our hearts and that by living and leading from that place, we can help shift the way others are experiencing life.
If you read that last line and thought, “Leading? I’m not a leader.” I want you to know that you’re wrong! People around you – your friends, your colleagues, your neighbors, your children, your siblings – are all impacted by how you show up with them every single day.
Think about when you walk into a room and someone greets you with a hearty “Hello” and you can feel their joy. Doesn’t it give you a lift?
Imagine if we could all remember that we can be the ones to lift up other people’s spirits. We can start this year with the intention to make life a little better – first for ourselves and then for others.
I’m not talking all Pollyanna here. I’m not saying “Don’t feel your feelings.” Not at all.
I’m just suggesting that we can have our experiences of pain and loss, AND we can commit to feeling more joy, love and connection.
One big way to restart is to simply remember that our lives happen in singular moments and each one is a brand-new chance to begin again. We are amazing, complex beings; we can feel sad and tired one moment and feel energized the next.
2020 and 2021 may have been terribly hard years in many ways; but we can start 2022 remembering that there is also so much to appreciate about ourselves, our lives and the people we love.
Your restart can be this: right now promise yourself that you will choose to feel joy and gratitude more often. Allow yourself to believe in a new beginning!
How to Re-Set?
Once you’ve made the commitment to believe that a restart is possible, it is time to reset!
How? Well, you know how your computer sometimes gets all weird and unresponsive? You know how you suddenly can’t get anything to work right?
What do you do? You push the on/off button and reset the darned thing, right?! Once you reset, all the old gunk seems to disappear and you have a clean slate to work with.
Okay…granted, we don’t have an actual button to push on ourselves or our lives; but we can pretend we do!
Close your eyes and imagine that you could release everything from the past that has been hurting you, worrying you or dragging you down. Can you visualize a way to start right here and now feeling renewed? Giving yourself a reset is like a new year’s present!
How to Re-Emerge?
This part’s the easiest part. It just takes trust.
Like a baby bird who has been pecking her way out of the shell, we have to allow ourselves to be brand new in the world.
Yep, it’ll feel a little naked. Yep, it’ll feel vulnerable. Yep, it might be scary; but it is also exciting.
Can you remind yourself of all the times in your life when you have made big changes and then simply stepped out into the world as that new you?
Think about a time that you started a brand-new job or tried on a new style of clothing or haircut. That felt a tad awkward, right? Nothing wrong with awkward. You survived it before. You will again. I promise.
After a while it just becomes the new status quo. What was uncomfortable for you becomes a natural part of you after time and practice.
As we begin a brand-new year, consider who you most want to be. How do you want to show up? What values do you want to align with?
Then, think about a few tiny ways that you can begin to live in congruence with those ways of being. Write them down! Every day take one tiny step toward emerging as the person you dream of being.
You can do this! I promise. You deserve to live the life that feels 100 percent true to you.
What I most want for all of us is to feel free to come out of hiding, to give ourselves permission to be wholly who we are,and to know that we belong on this planet EXACTLY as who we are. That’s what re-emergence can look like!
I’m cheering you on in this beginning of 2022 as you re-start, re-set and re-emerge. You’ve got this!
