For the past decade, I’ve been foregoing New Year’s resolutions in favor of choosing a single word by which to live for the year. It’s inspired by One Word 365, which encourages this practice.
As I did last year, I felt like checking in now that we’re close to the midpoint of 2023.
My word for this year is Heal:
But I think I need to reframe activities like exercise, martial arts, and writing in terms of the healing they can bring. I want to make that my focus rather than for the usual “new year, new me” reasons. The latter will still come, just in a different way.
So in 2023, I’ll seek to heal in body, mind, and spirit.
As usual, the past 6 months have not gone as planned. And I already know that the remainder of the year won’t, either. But that’s not altogether a negative thing.
The biggest factor has been the sheer number of items on my family’s weekly schedule. I’m sure that there have been this many in previous years, but the way we need to navigate them, keep track of them, run members to them, and make time for them has shifted somehow. The majority of this is due to our kids’ changing interests, and one of them being a high schooler for the first time has certainly affected that.
This has placed restrictions on things that I was planning to pursue for my own healing. I’ve had to make peace with some activities falling by the wayside to maintain certain priorities. It’s been difficult to accept, but necessary. As if that wasn’t enough, my position’s work-from-home policy will change at the end of July, and that will bring further shifts and restrictions when it takes effect.
So. How to heal in the midst of all of this?
The biggest lesson that I have learned (or re-learned) so far this year has been the importance of margins. I’ve needed to remember that spaces on the schedule do not need to be automatically filled. There is already so much happening right now that trying to fit in additional things would take away my peace, and maintaining that peace is a big need for my healing right now.
The way I’ve been approaching this so far, and the way I’ll continue to do so the rest of the year, includes the following:
- Continuing to refer to the list of healing practices I made early in the year;
- Learning to set activities aside that would only add further stress, as badly as I want to continue doing them, at least for the time being;
- Reflect on the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching and its encouragement to do less in order to understand more;
- Enjoy my summer activity list.
I don’t expect the second half of the year to be any more straightforward than the first, but I at least feel good about my adjusted expectations and that I’ve already identified ways to sustain myself going forward. I’ll look forward to how things play out, and to my continued learning.
Jeffrey A. Nelson 