Even though it might feel as if last night, we were supposed to celebrate 2008 instead of 2024, it is, in fact, 2024. (I know, still processing.)
So Happy New Year!
Since yesterday, I have been hearing “Oh, I hope you have an even better year!”.
My response is usually “I mean, 2023 did set the bar a little too low so it is all uphill from here!”.
Briefly, I will tell you the 5 reasons why this year is going to be “uphill from here” - for both you and me.
Reason 1: We survived.
If you are reading this, right now, means that you made it.
And that took a lot, I am sure - resilience, patience, dedication… hell, it might have taken all of the nouns I can come up with. Mine sure feels like it did.
But we are here. Still standing.
I promised myself not to give any ‘new year, new me’ vibe, but remember this":
We learn more from the lows than the highs. The lessons lie at the bottom.
Reason 2: It is, in fact, “new year, new me” - ish.
Some of you may know, but this space used to be ‘Read my lips’ - a child of my inability to be patient and sit with what it is that I want to do.
I work as a language teacher and I wanted to show how I do my darndest to help my students heal. I got the TEFL Certificate, started teaching, learnt how I (not the system) actually want to teach, kept going, kept going.. Went back home, had a nervous breakdown and started a page. Sensible, right?
Several months down the line - managing a full-time job, all the hassle of living abroad and well, surviving, and a page that just did not resonate 100%.
“It should have resonated, I dedicate so much time and effort”. Well, no, not really. It has to resonate with YOU.
Although we are not taught to wait, to sit still, we have to learn how to do it.
Sitting still, with a journal nearby, and a ton of reflection, I present to you - the “uphill from here”:
Reason 3: Heal.
Simply put,
I will tell you what I wish I had been told when I began my healing journey.
Reason 4: Radiate
As within, so without.
You might have heard that quote when The Secret became popular in the day.
You might have heard it elsewhere. I don’t know.
What I do know is that it is true - the within - the inner state, our thoughts, our emotions, our beliefs, our being - is reflected in our external experience.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
When you have had a long day at work, where people exhibited questionable intelligence, then you are not ultra happy about that person in the supermarket that takes foreveeeeeer to put the groceries on the conveyer? (True story.)
Hypothetically, if your colleagues did actually exhibit the intelligence that they are paid to do (just try and imagine), you would not have been pissed at the 70-year-old lady who is in front of you at the store? You might have even helped her.
Now, I will not be dealing with such situations (only in my day-to-day life, probably), but my point is:
If you heal internally, you will vastly improve your overall life.
Reason 5: Advocate
Not only will you be improving your life, and focusing on the right thing, while letting go of the things that need letting go. No, not only that.
You will continue manifesting your findings and bringing them wherever you go.
You will become an advocate of a collective healing revolution. Welcome, we have cookies!
I expect you to say, “Katrin, isn’t that a bit too much? You said no ‘new year, new me’ vibe!”
Firstly, I never said that this is new - it has been this way forever - when we are unhappy, the world becomes this stupid ugly place, we don’t appreciate the food our partner makes us, we go for a walk and slip in the mud, and we just hate that tomorrow we have to work tomorrow, and oh, this dreadful meeting tomorrow, and the coffee at work sucks, and then.. (Keep going if you wish, I could but I choose not to).
Secondly, I never said it would happen in a year. I won’t promise quick solutions - “HEAL IN 5 WEEKS WITH MY BRAND NEW PROGRAM”, “BECOME THE BEST PERSON YOU STRIVE TO BECOME IN 6 MONTHS”, “LOVE YOURSELF IN ONE WEEK WITH MY JOURNAL PROMPTS!”.
Oh, no way. (I have been ‘doing the work’ since 2016 and let me tell you, one of my first realizations was: the work ends when I die).
Thirdly, no, it is not too positive because change starts from us - and I am so aware that generational trauma is a fact, but so is generational healing.
It is your choice.
It is for your sake, first and foremost.