When New Year’s Doesn’t Feel Like a Fresh Start
New Year’s has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. I love goal setting. I love the sense of possibility. I love any excuse to wear a sparkling black dress and most of all, I love symbolic reflection that finds the meaning in all things. Every once in a while, I meet another stray weirdo like myself who shares this love. But most people prefer Christmas and Thanksgiving or maybe the Fourth of July. New Year’s, more often than not, is met with a groan. For a long time, I couldn’t understand that reaction. I genuinely didn’t get why people felt resistant to something that felt so energizing and hopeful to me. So I started observing it more closely, both casually and clinically. When I’d ask people about their New Year intentions, their plans, or how they wanted to step into the year ahead, the responses weren’t neutral. They were tense. Avoidant. Sometimes irritated. Often exhausted. That curiosity led me to look more closely at what people are actually reacting t...