What are you looking forward to about starting a new year, need help beating the gloom

[MaybeItsTimeForMeNow]

I suffer from terrible Jan blues, i dislike NYD although celebrate for my kids. Its like a festering unease inside me of nervousness of what might happen in the next year and anxiety of returning to work. After a christmas where 2 of my 3 kids (8, 5 and 3) have been very unwell im feeling I could be at a tipping point that I need to go big for new year to counter act the gloom and make up for a sadly disappointing christmas.

So what brings you hope for 2026. What's putting a spring in your step for January. I want to refocus my energy !!!

I misread your title as ‘need help beating the groom’, and was happily imagining you having some kind of S and M thing going on with someone at a livery stables.😀

Someone on here recommended a book called I Dare Me, about a woman who tried a new thing everyday.

I can't settle myself that goal due to other commitments, but I'm going to try something new every week. I could hardly sleep last night thinking about the new things I'm going to try!

Good luck xx

Living a bit longer 😄

@BerfyTigot oh I like that! I would probably struggle with every day too but once a week seems doable! Even if its try a new food or something. Thanks!

@IllAdvised sadly not that exciting!!

@MrsSkylerWhite fair point. I have a big birthday next year so maybe slightly more of longevity! And very elderly parents. I'm so grateful of everything I have today I live in fear of losing it. Weird!!

Dp is turning 60 this year and it’s a HUGE time for celebration. I’m buying him a present he’s wanted for a decade and am secretly inviting a few friends over to try it out on his birthday. Then I’m also secretly getting his kids and mine together for a special outing a couple of weeks later. Then we’re going on a BIG holiday in the autumn, and he’s going part time after that.

On a smaller scale… going to do more Pilates this year. Also am going to grow runner beans and more tomatoes, we had an incredible crop last year and they all tasted amazing.

The author was a journalist and seems to have quite a flexible job which allowed her to do other things (and she got a book out of it), but my own work isn't so flexible.

I'm making a list of events i might want to go to.

But it could be as dull as going to a different supermarket and trying a different ready meal from their own range.

Netflix - season 2 of the Night Manager, and that drama with James Nesbitt and Ruth Jones.

I am also planning to get back into swimming. I loved it as a kid and became pretty good at it, but stopped when I was in my mid-teens. My mate is taking up trampolining again for the same reason! I draw the line at that.

Also... Traitors on NY Day!!

To start with clearing the garden whilst we can see it’s bare bones (planting and pruning)
Enjoying the simplicity of January, yes I like ice scraping the car, I make extra time in the morning but there is something more I don’t know, real, caveman even, about being out in the frost and having to do something before you move your personal warm transport. Almost like a connection to most of humankind in the past when ease and convenience didn’t exist.

Experimenting with warm salads full of nuts (they have complex essential fats)

Letting the excesses of Christmas melt away and embracing back to hard work

I like the dull unchanging light (I am an artist and north facing studios are better because the light doesn’t change)

we also have a telescope that is much better in winter (with a clear sky) for stars - the air is different they are brighter (better constellations)

putting water and fat balls out for birds when it freezes over (you can help wildlife more in the winter) encourage it close to your surroundings

in today’s world it’s still shit when you are ill but modern medicine from the smallest bottle of calpol to the most complex brain surgery is always a marvel - many many people who want to understand, alleviate, prevent, cure, irradiate human disease and suffering make illness (for most) an inconvenience not a reason to be utterly afraid. Those who pursue advancement, conduct surgery, develop medicines are very overlooked in day-to-day life but where would any of us be without them. You might have had a rubbish Christmas but that’s all it was. The magic of Christmas you chase you can create in your family life all year round. Play cards, watch movies, read poems, cook good food. You still have each other, you don’t need Santa, a tree and strings of fairy lights to have the essential elements of Christmas.

Look forward in a nutshell I guess

After a couple of years of not having the headspace or time to use the new year as a reset I’m looking forward this year to some quite generic “resolutions”. I’m going to read 12 books next year, do the 1000 hours outside, declutter the house (properly!), try and start gentle exercise again and listen to new music. I’m strangely excited and comforted by my very ordinary new years goals 😅
Hope you can find something that lifts you from the blues. I always find buying the bunches of daffodils and tulips as soon as they’re available make everything a bit brighter!

Which is great! You e lived a good life and want more of it. X

Flowers is a great idea, and im committed to the gym from Jan 🏋️‍♀️ I can do this.

Im so grateful for the medicine my children have had, its been so tough watching them be poorly, I'm praying my DD is over the worst and will look brighter tomorrow and as for christmas im not sad for me I'm sad for them, theyre so little.

I have had a great life and hope I have a lot more ahead. I love my children and family so much, maybe too much! I dont share that love for work sadly but bills need paying!!

I suspect that 'going big' for January is setting yourself up to fail and feel worse. Accept the fact that January is dark and wet and cold and a bit shit, and embrace it. It's the middle of winter. Slow down, appreciate the small things, set your home environment up to be cosy and a retreat. You can start a new habit any day, it doesn't have to be on Thursday.

Try the five minutes gratitude journal. Download the Healthy Minds app and practice mindfulness. Cook a new recipe. Spend time outdoors in daylight as much as possible. Take vitamin D. Declutter your house.

I always used to hate the return to work (and school, years ago) after the Christmas break, but DH and I work in healthcare so we don't get the two weeks off. It makes the 5th of January much more bearable. If you work somewhere that doesn't close over Christmas, in future consider working a day or two in between. It softens the blow of going back after NY.

I was given some bulbs, an amaryllis and some herb pots for Christmas so after we have seen the new year in and eaten a few more leftovers from Christmas - I will plant them all up.
Seeing new shoots from seedlings is always a sign of new life and positivity for me and a sign that spring is on its way even if snow has been forecast!! ❄

I enjoy making plans in January for the upcoming year.
this year I’m planning on something nice and that’s different once a month.

so for Jan me and dh are going away overnight to a beautiful city not too far but has the best Mexican restaurant that we will eat in and get very tipsy at

feb Big clear out of the loft ready for a renovation to start

march no plan yet

april going to see a live show that we’ve not seen before at a venue we haven’t been to before

may I plan on a week off and to do something different every day. (Did this last year and it was great)

June birthday month so a trip somewhere

july. Big holiday abroad with a chartered boat which we’ve never done before.

August family festival and some big live band events

september no plans yet

october a three day glamping experience not donebefore

november. Birthday month so spa break somewhere nice

december. Well it’s my busiest time in my business and Xmas plans and all however I’m going to close earlier next year because it was a mad rush to get everything done this year.

also really need to get bak to walking again. I was walking five miles each morning before work with a podcast on and absolutely looked forward to it.
I felt so much h better and lost some weight which is definitely needed again so have to drag my ass up off the sofa and really try again

I've read I Dare Me and tried a new thing every day before. It is really fun. I recommend it. Doesn't have to be as big as some of the things the author did - she was a TV anchor with access to some really exciting opportunities. But some things she did were tiny, like dancing around her own kitchen.

I love New Year for the sense of new starts. I love clearing away all the colour and clutter of Christmas, planting bulbs like amaryllis, filling the house with hyacinths and white flowers, burning fresh candles in place of spicy ones, cooking light, healthy food after all the stodge, reading new books, listening to new music, enjoying the longer lighter days, writing a journal, putting some plans in place to look forward to during the coming year and generally feeling like life is having a chance at a reset.

You should start a thread documenting the new thing you tried and how it went

It's my youngest's birthday middle of January. I start to look forward to lighter nights, more day light in general. I love spring and Easter. It feels more like a new year then, rather than January for me. Flowers blooming, trees growing leaves, lambs, chick's, new life in general. I keep going for spring lol

I've booked 4 concerts next year.