It's January, time to rest and reflect

I used to be beholden to the Gregorian Calendar, feeling the need to have myself “all together” on January 1^st. It never worked out, and I started the “new year” feeling unprepared and behind (behind what, I don’t know, but maybe you can relate to the feeling).

It was a great relief when I was introduced to other calendars and different ways of thinking about the year's arc. I began to understand why our current version of New Year’s doesn’t work for me.  

First off, a slight sidebar that I feel strongly about: the idea that a new day, let alone a new year, starts in the middle of the night makes no sense at all, once you step back to think about it. A new day starts at dawn; a new year begins at dawn. This is why I haven’t greeted January 1^st at midnight for decades.

Plus, it turns out that January 1^st isn’t the start of anything. We are just two weeks past the Winter Solstice, so we are still in deep winter. We are moving towards the start of spring – the true mark of the new year - but we are not there yet.

So rather than feeling like you need to hurry up and get it together for 2026, know that January is, energetically, the time to rest, reflect, assess, and intend. It is not a time for reinventing a new you (the current you being just fine) with resolute resolutions and jumping in full steam ahead.

I like to spend January doing what I call “internal composting.” It doesn’t look like much is going on from the outside (like a compost pile in winter), but inside, I’m taking stock of what has come to pass in the previous year, I’m assessing the current state of my internal resources, and from there, I set conscious and meaningful intentions for the coming year.

It’s a process that unfolds over several weeks, and I greet the early blossoms of February that herald the start of spring with a grounded sense of possibilities and renewal.

So, take a deep breath of relief, and know that there is plenty of time to prepare for and meet the new year with thoughtfulness and ease.

Living with the seasons makes life easier,
Kirstin Lindquist