Open: how it found me for my word of 2022
I used to love making New Years Resolutions! As a kid, teen, and young adult, I reveled in the start of a new year with all the possibilities ahead of me. I had the standard resolutions, eat healthier, save more money, shop less, start working out more, etc. Mind you, this was the late 80’s, early 90’s, late 90’s …… way before I knew anything about smart goal setting and accountability! My friends and I would make a list of our goals while watching movies, eating popcorn, and just be happy to start off the year having fun!
Fast forward to adulthood and parenthood. I no longer stay up to midnight with friends. We have toddlers New Year (even though we technically don’t have toddlers anymore). We eat good food, play games, and then with it hits that time the kiddos are done, we count down to a pretend midnight (I mean, it’s midnight somewhere), and call it a night.
As for my resolutions, nope, not happening. No more. No thank you. Instead, I just pick one word that I’d like to focus on for the upcoming year. Usually, I think long and hard about the word. And I sit with it for a while. Try it on. See how it fits. Sometimes, eh, not for the upcoming year so I pick another. This year, I totally spaced my beloved tradition. Completely forgot about it. Now, I’ve been doing this for several years mind you so this is nothing new. Just with the holidays, obligations, and general life in a global pandemic, I forgot about it.
But then, in a moment of stillness and quiet, it came to me. I didn’t have to think about it. It just popped into my head and was there, like a long lost friend who dropped by unexpectedly.
Open.
It seemed so simple. Too simple. I thought, oh, I’ll have to look up other ways to say open. But then I said no to myself. Open chose me. And I’m keeping it.
So what does open mean? To me, it means I am open to new opportunities – ones that come to me (like open did) and ones that I create for myself. I’m open to new challenges – even the scary ones. Especially the scary ones. I want to be open to new ways of thinking (something that can be both hard and scary in our current climate).
Taking a moment to practice open mindful breathing. One hand on the heart another on the belly. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. Photo by Rambunctious Media.
And most importantly, I want to be open to give this back into the universe. What I take in, I want to be open to put back out there.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I can’t wait to see what “opens” up for me this year. And I hope you’ll be open to it as well.
Best,
Meg