Lydia Millen’s Guide to Slowing Down and Starting the Year With Intention

There’s something satisfying about opening a new diary with 365 fresh pages to fill. Those fresh pages represent a clean slate. Fresh dreams. Fresh opportunities. And a fresh outlook for the months ahead. It’s why, for all of the negative press it receives, I welcome January with open arms.

That being said, I haven’t always felt this way. Once upon a time, I viewed winter as a tale of two halves. The arrival of December was always marked with great enthusiasm. After weeks of anticipation and counting down, at long last, December was here.

Once the magic, sparkle and excitement of the festive period were over, however, I struggled to see what a post-Christmas winter could offer. As if on cue, conversations about how dark and miserable it was outside would emerge in small talk, like a winter cough that felt inevitable and impossible to shift. That nip in the air that felt so festive during the run-up to Christmas suddenly felt not so magical two weeks into January, when you’re running late and need to defrost your car.

Somewhere along the line, though, that narrative grew old for me. I became bored of wasting my energy begrudging a season that would return year on year, however much I and others willed it not to. Not to mention, I became fed up with looking outside and letting the weather dictate my mood and, in turn, my overall wellbeing.