New Year, New Me

Happy 2024, everyone! I have avoided setting New Year’s resolutions for a while now for a number of reasons. The biggest is that they always seem to be so all-or-nothing in the declarations. Like, either I’m doing whatever the resolution is to the extreme or I’ve failed. That seems like a lot of pressure to place on someone for 365 days! 

So instead, I’d like to encourage you to prioritize themes for the new year. In 2023, I told myself my theme was ‘career’. I have always been a pretty dedicated person to my career and passion in mental health but I wanted to dedicate time to really focusing in on what I wanted. So I launched a new business, started a podcast with one of my besties (shout out Collective Conversations!) and stepped further into a leadership role with The Collective. At the end of the year, I was able to reflect on how much the focus on my theme was able to assist me in cultivating what I’d like our of a career. 

So what’s my theme for this year? In line with our general mission at The Collective, this year I really want to focus on my social health and relationships. This is so important for me, for a number of reasons but namely because we know that your social health plays a vital role in your overall mental health. Social connections can:

• Improve your ability to recover from stress and depression

• Reduce your overall risk for suicide and suicidal ideations

• Promote physical wellness like healthy sleep patterns 

Not to mention it can help us strengthen our overall connectedness with our communities which can form trust, safety and resiliency in communities. 

Even as a general introvert, I know that having my people, my friends and family, my community makes me a much better human. It allows me to function in ways that wouldn’t be possible if I was living a life of isolation.

So this year, if you are looking for a new year’s theme, might I suggest looking at your social health?