Monthly Archives: December 2022

So Long 2022, Year Two in the New Abnormal

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Here we are as we move away from 2022 to 2023.  It’s the weekend.  It’s also a milestone in the annual calendar.  

One thing I know for sure is that as much as we hope and try, mistakes will be made this coming year.  We might prefer to forget the hardships of the last three years, but we’re still recovering.  We may want to reach new goals, or old goals yet to be achieved.  Hopefully we’ll get there, but the challenges and lessons along the way may not be easy.  As we work on being better and doing better, they’ll be disappointments and setbacks.  

Let’s create space for the unexpected.  No path forward in the real world is a straight line.  There will be rolling hills, detours, and sometimes we’ll hit a ditch.  We may have to spend more time on life lessons, even when we think we already know the answer.  

Let’s be curious about what’s ahead.  Let’s be courageous as we ease into the journey that will be 2023.  I plan to finish a book that’s halfway done but with no contract yet.  I’ve been challenged and am learning new ways to work full time, care for myself, and reach this goal.  My expectations of myself have been unrealistic causing me to doubt myself.  But I will forge on.  

It turns out that I have mistaken being busy for being productive.  As I face the new year, I will continue to tease out this issue so that I may finish this book without sacrificing my well-being.  It will take courage to work through this. The courage of grit.  And the courage of forging my own path.  My book is on courage in therapy and in life.  So, it’s only fitting that I will harness whatever courage I need to complete my goals.   

The courage of vulnerability was required to share this about myself.  A good way to open new doors to start off 2023, even if it leaves me feeling a bit scared.  I’m hopeful we’ll all find our innate courage to be kind, caring and compassionate with ourselves and one another.  It’s easy to fly off the handle, as we’ve repeatedly witnessed this last year.  Let’s do the necessary work to soothe ourselves so we can face the road ahead.  It’s an imperfect journey, but if we learn from our mistakes, and learn from one another, we will grow exponentially.  

Wishing all of us a healing year of personal and global well-being in 2023.   

Self-Care Tools:

  • Be curious.  We learn so much more when we don’t get stuck on assumptions.  With curiosity we open up our hearts and find compassion rather than getting jammed-up because we have to be right.  
  • Find your courage of vulnerability by sharing something about yourself that may be risky but also will feel freeing.  It can be something as simple as saying “I’m scared,” or as uncertain as admitting you don’t know something.  
  • Take one small actionable step towards something you want.  You could start a savings account even with $5 for a future vacation, or for another aspiration.  You could clean out a drawer as a way of beginning to create order.  Whatever it is make sure it’s doable.  It may be challenging, or you think “what difference will this make?” Nonetheless, small steps lead to big goals.  

The Compassion Diet, Week Fifty-Two in the New Abnormal

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Should we end this year and start the new year with resolutions?  For me, the answer is no.  I will think of what I’d like to let go of, and how I will be caring to myself and others, but there is no declaration in that.  What I have been thinking about as I view commercials and advertisements enticing us to try new weight loss pills and programs is the mixed up past I, and so many of us, have had with messaging around food, eating, and the lack of joy in caring for ourselves.  In the spirit of that, I am thinking of a diet of compassion.  Not a food diet, but nourishment, nonetheless.  

When looking up the word diet, I found the restriction in its definition.  But I also found that the origin of the word “diet” comes from the Greek word “diata” meaning “way of life.”  I like that.  We can incorporate compassion as a way of life.  It’s a wonderful concept because it addresses all aspects of our lives.  And, on this diet of compassion, we could bring compassion at any moment.  If we find we’re being hard on ourselves, we can notice that.  Then we can fold in compassion as a way of care as we go through something difficult.  

Compassion connotes respect.  It is a way of acknowledging ourselves and others that we recognize something may be difficult.  We see that we and/or they are in pain, and we take a caring stance.  It does not mean allowing a hurtful behavior to continue.  But we can appreciate that whether we are being insensitive to ourselves or others, it probably means we are hurting, and our behavior can clue us in on that.  Once we make note of that we can insert a generous dose of compassion.  It may take time and the courage of vulnerability, but we will emotionally soften with the effort.  And when others are mean, rude, disrespectful, or uncaring, we can do our best to choose to get out of harm’s way. If possible, as we exercise silent compassion for the pain they are in.  We can also, double down on compassion for ourselves for being in harm’s way.  

So, as we finish this difficult year off, and as we begin what we hope will be a gentler year, let’s all enjoy a diet of compassion.  No deprivation, just love and respect.  

Self-Care Tips:

  • Create a jar or a box or a journal in which you write down good times, happy experiences, and joyous moments.  Then, you have a record of those times at the end of 2023.  (This was taken from The New York Times’ where it was reported Martha Johnson of Maryland Heights, Mo., had the idea to create a jar labeled “Good Stuff in 2022. 
  • Keep an old-fashioned pen and pad by your bed so if you wake up and think of something, or forgot something, you can write it down, allowing you to return to sleep without any blue light.  
  • Move one thing from your to-do list to the “I’ll try to-do list.”  This way you can ease into it, and give yourself a break, rather than forcing something that only makes you feel critical of yourself.  Of course, whether you can move it or not, whether you get it done, or not, be compassionate with yourself.  That, too, will be a kindness.  

Lost Gloves, Week Fifty-One in the New Abnormal

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I’m going to think of my gloves as rentals.  No matter what I pay, and how I try to keep them deep in my pockets when they are off my hands, I seem to lose one or more throughout the winter-wear season.  Say what you will about gloves, they undoubtedly lack permanence.  I suppose we could say that about life itself.  

When listening to Buddhist thinkers, or mindfulness teachers, I often hear them speaking thoughtfully on the impermanence of life.  I believe the concept is true, but my mind goes into a strange denial of things lost.  I will retrace my steps a day later in the hopes of finding the errant glove.  I will attempt to undo something I said that can’t be unsaid.  Or I will try to figure out exactly where or how I can contact an old friend no longer a part of my present life.  It’s hard not to be upset when I’ve lost a document, or worse, files to computer purgatory.  

Conversely, I’m happy when an unpleasant experience comes to an end.  Or I’m finished with a deadline allowing me to move on.  I can bask in the memory of a delicious meal, not upset at all of its impermanence.  But I guess we can’t have one without the other.  


Am I upset that this year is in its final weeks?  Not at all.  So many of us carried a heavy load this year.  I’m glad 2022 is almost over and I will not regret its passing.  I’m hopeful our burdens will be lighter these last two weeks as we experience the impermanence of time passing until 2023.  

Self-Care Tips:

  • If you’re able to afford it, buy two pairs of gloves instead of one.  This way when you lose one you have one from the second set to take its place.  You can also do this with socks.  
  • Carry a smooth stone in your favorite color to rub when you need a bit of grounding or stress relief.  
  • Sing in the shower.  If you want to sing along with music, set your phone with a playlist in a dry place in your bathroom while you shower.  It’s a great way to clear your windpipes (along with your head) while getting clean.  

Emotions During the Holidays, Week Fifty in the New Abnormal

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I was in an emotional tailspin earlier this week.  I could tell I wasn’t in the right headspace as I kept thinking of past mistakes I’ve made, times I’ve previously hurt friends, and ways in which I had poor judgement. I was not coming out a champ.  More like a chump.  The negative barrage is not unfamiliar, but it happens less often than in former years.  By Tuesday, I knew that I needed to clear my head so there’d be space for self-care and kindness.  Luckily, I had my weekly therapy session.  

I became a therapist 25 years ago because of the help I received in therapy.  I learned a lot about myself, sometimes painfully conscious of how my choices perpetuated circumstances I had wanted to change.  Yet, year after year life got better.  So much so that I came to value mental well-being. While the descriptions of being overly sensitive in my family and social life were seen by others as detrimental traits, they are the very qualities that ensure I’m in the right field.  

My self-criticism earlier this week was important because it not only told me to continue to do the emotional, psychological, and spiritual work to be less judgmental to myself and others, but it was also a reminder of the depth of condemnation I internalized. 

As we carry on through this holiday season, we will find it imperfect.  There will be lovely moments, as there was when I walked past the Rockefeller Christmas tree late at night.  But there will be times when we’re stressed, when we feel as if we’re not enough, or when we might be disappointed with failed plans, substandard gifts, or family members acting out.  If we find we’re being hard on ourselves in those moments, perhaps we can all give ourselves the gift of benevolence.  Let’s give ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt.  We got through a pandemic, we’re still dealing with its aftermath, and there’s a big push from retailers and social media for these holidays to be fabulous.  

Let’s settle for being real rather than make believe.  There may be flaws in the realness, but there will also be true joy for accepting what is. 

Self-care tips:

  • Get a post-it pad and write “I am Enough” on as many pages as you want to post.  Put it inside your medicine cabinet, on the fridge, in your sock drawer, in your wallet.  Write it on your calendar.  Remind yourself throughout the day that yes, indeed, you are enough.  
  • Rather than trying to let things go, see if you’re able to think about letting it be.  It doesn’t mean you’re not working on it, or you’re helplessly accepting something that is bothersome, it’s just that by letting things be, we don’t have to take an immediate action.  We are not required to DO anything, which is a way of giving yourself a break.  
  • Do something for someone else that is anonymous.  It’s a gift to yourself to be happy to give freely without any need or expectation for something in return.  

A Pile of New Yorkers, Week Forty-Nine in the New Abnormal

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I made it to page 50 of the New Yorker with the promise of a poem on the next page.  Of course, this is the November 14th Issue, which may seem to indicate I’m a month behind.  Not so, since I arbitrarily picked it up from a pile that goes back to issues from last year, I now am down to eleven unread issues.  This is my ongoing plight with New Yorkers.  My pile expands or contracts based on what’s happening any given week.  

I love receiving the magazine, checking out the cover art, viewing the contributors.  Each week I have the best of intentions of getting through its pages, ending on an entertaining crossword puzzle.   However, it’s a rare week when that happens.  Instead, I save them for a doctor’s waiting room.  Or, better yet, I bring a small stack with me when traveling.  If I can get through an issue before a flight lands, I am deeply satisfied.  Even better, is when it’s a long flight and I get through two or more.  If I’m on vacation, part of my relaxation is in the form of reading the magazine’s contents, sans political pieces. I get through my issues, one by one, as if I’m triumphing over one of life’s accomplishments. 

This is my mixed relationship with The New Yorker.  I’m not alone.  A good number of colleagues have bemoaned their unread New Yorker stacks.  Conversations with friends reveal their backlogs of the magazine.  We keep it because we know, even if we don’t read the entire issue, there will be jewels in between the covers.  It could be a restaurant review, poetry, letters to the editor, in which we get new perspectives in small bites, or the amusing cartoons.  Whatever the case, we know when we get to each publication we will learn something new.  

The accumulation of my New Yorkers is a metaphor for life.  There’s always more to get done.  Our relationship to what’s in front of us is what makes the difference.  I used to feel uncomfortable looking at my unread issues thinking that it reflected a lack of discipline.  Or it said I wasn’t on the cutting edge.  True, I’m not on the cutting edge.  But that’s okay.  If we can look at what we want to get done and assess we can reasonably get done given whatever limitations show up, we will find great relief.  Breaking things into smaller steps allows us to stay in the moment while still following a path of our own making.  The pile of New Yorkers is not about what we haven’t done, but rather an aspiration of what we hope to accomplish in the fullness of time.  

Self-Care Tips:

  • Give yourself a break and simply read the cartoons in an old New Yorker, then give it away, or recycle it, rather than keeping it for a time that never comes.  
  • When making a to-do list, break down the tasks into bite-sized activities, so that you can experience accomplishments along the way of completing any given undertaking. 
  • Sigh aloud.  There’s a wonderful release when we can freely sigh.