The January Slow Down

There’s something special about January. Not because of the new year full of possibilities, but because of the slow pace our lives take after the whirlwind of holidays and all that they entail. I don’t know about you, but I love this transition. I am perfectly content to hide away at home with some winter comfort food, some books or knitting, and just… breathe.

December was an insanely stressful month for me. The end of the semester on my classes left me exhausted, burnt out, and depressed. There was an outright meltdown the weekend before finals where I just broke down and lost it – it was all too much. I expected after class was over to just bounce from class to jumping in to holiday activities I, instead, slept. And slept. And slept some more. I hadn’t realized the toll all that class stress took on me.

Now that the blur of the holidays is over, and we’ve taken a very lovely last-minute family vacation that recharged me quite a bit, I’m ready to sink deep into the winter slumber and finish recharging. I’m embracing an idea of doing less this year, out of want and necessity – minimalism for the soul, in a way. The busier life has gotten, the more I have realized that it needs to be okay to not do everything. I trigger my own anxiety and add to my stress when I feel like I should or need to do something when I really don’t. So I am attempting to create boundaries for myself, give myself permission to say no more, and to actually live instead of checking off my perpetual to do list that never ends, anyway.