Today is December 27.
The New Year is 4 days away.
You still have time to decide how will you handle 2018.
I am not talking here about how you will bring in the New Year. You may choose to go out and party, stay at home with your significant others, or watch the “ball” drop at midnight and go to bed.
What I am talking about is how you will approach the New Year emotionally.
There are many options:
- Will you think back on 2017 and nostalgically reflect on all you have accomplished?
- Will you get depressed because of all the things you didn’t get done that you wanted to accomplish?
- Will you be anxious because you can’t predict what will happen in 2018?
- Will you feel sad because of what, or who, you lost?
- Or will you feel despair because you dread what may happen in 2018?
As The Emotions Doctor, my suggestion for you involves three steps each of which comes from the emotional process I have discussed in many of my earlier posts:
- take some time to think about what you are feeling,
- validate the feeling
- make a decision about how you want to approach 2018 and what you want to feel.
It is important to note that your feelings reflect how you view your “world”.
Your perception of the world is always under your control.
Because of this, you can choose how you want to feel about the future (2018).
Yes, it is true that there is a great deal of uncertainty in the world today and going forward into 2018.
If you choose to focus on this uncertainty and your inability to control global events, you will feel anxiety as distress. This can lead to depression.
If you choose to acknowledge the uncertainty but focus your attention of what you can influence, then you might experience the flipside of anxiety which is anticipation.
You can set some goals if you wish (and this is a good idea if the goals are believable, backed up by a plan and measurable).
Or, you can make some new year’s resolutions which is probably not a good idea as you most likely will not remember them 3 days into the New Year.
However, you choose to go into 2018, I hope you will continue to come to this site, read my posts and leave a comment. Also, be sure to check out the index as there may be a previous post which addresses a question you might have about emotions.
I wish you all the best in 2018 and let me be the first to wish you a Happy New Year.