I’ll be up front with my word for 2021:
In 2020, my word was do. I chose my word before I knew just how craptacular the year would be. Fortunately, it was quite useful to keep me on track: do get out of bed each day; do keep yourself and others safe; do seek and be grateful for the good things in life.
One of the practices I made an effort to do to deal with stress was mindfulness. I’m not great at it, but I at least tried to be present in each moment rather than letting myself be distracted by the three-ring shit show that was 2020.
Toward the end of the year, I started listening to the Secular Buddhism podcast. One of the episodes talked about observing and being grateful for feelings, even if they are unpleasant. It struck me as interesting because people tend to always want to be happy and avoid being sad or angry. This message kept bubbling to the top of my brain while I thought about a word for this year.
The other theme floating around in my head was not forcing myself to do stressful activities. I have a habit of doing too much out of a sense of obligation and sending myself into mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion. This year the goal is to be where I feel I need to be, and not push myself to do things out of obligation. Okay, so I’ll still push myself because that’s just me, but it will not be out of obligation.
So I will embrace my word for 2021 and be where I need to be this year. I will also mindfully observe my feelings and be happy, sad, calm, anxious, angry, joyful, annoyed, hopeful, and grateful that I am alive to feel all of those things.