For several years, I’ve challenged the trend of “New Year, New You” that we often see this time of year. Why do advertisers think we need a new us? Why do they try to sell the idea that we need to reinvent ourselves? Aren’t we already good enough? I certainly think we are.
Though I don’t feel the need to create a new me at midnight as we usher in each new year, I find myself lining up goals, aspirations, and new challenges at the beginning of each January.
This year, I started seeing a trend of Gentle January. While I loved the idea of a gentle month to begin 2025, I also had a list of challenges set up for myself that included a 30-day squat challenge, a 30-day plank challenge, a Systema challenge, and to get in 60 km of walking this month regardless of what Mother Nature might bring to Saskatchewan.
Well, it seems other plans were in store for me. Less than a week into the new year, I came down with one (or two) of the viruses that are going around. For over a week, I fluctuated between feelings of a nasty cold and the stomach flu.
I soon realized that all my plans were on hold as I dosed up on fresh fruit juice, cough syrup, and Vick’s vapour rub. My enthusiastic start to 2025 turned into several days of staying home, afternoon naps, mindlessly scrolling, eating cereal for dinner, and puttering around the house.
During my scrolling, I saw more about Gentle January. I also saw reels encouraging folks to go easy on themselves. These posts expressed how if we look around outside, nature is still in its season of rest. Why do we expect to start the new year diving into a bunch of ambitious to-do lists? Maybe the start of challenges we want to tackle should begin in the spring as nature begins to come alive.
Once I felt on the mend, I have to confess I started my 30-day squat challenge. Not twelve hours later I felt horrible again. No doubt, when I feel well again I will be squatting.
But perhaps there is some value on taking this time to be a little more reflective and willing to add some balance. Brainstorming ways to honour a gentle January I came up with fifteen gentle ideas to add to my to-do list for the rest of the month.
- Snuggle on the couch and watch one of my favourite movies
- Bake some muffins
- Listen to some new music
- Pull out my pencil crayons for some doodling
- Enjoy some hearty soups and chilli
- Nurture my houseplant friends
- Browse through some cookbooks from the library for inspiration
- Play with creating my perfect at-home London Fog
- Sit in candlelight
- Spend time with my mala beads repeating affirmations
- Browse through seed catalogues that are appearing in my mailbox
- Play with writing some poems
- Go outside and takes some pictures of nature
- Get out my Ukrainian Easter egg kit and decorate some eggs
- Reread The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder