The new year is here. So many of us may feel such a sense of relief that 2020 is over. All the pain, all the frustration, all the wrong. It has to be over, right? A new year brings opportunity for growth, for change. As the old saying goes, new year, new me!

Maybe not…

2020 brought on a great deal of pain. COVID-19 came and spread with such voracity, no one saw it coming. So in this new year, do we think it will just go away? Does making our traditional resolutions make COVID gone? Does the existence of multiple vaccines make it possible to go back to the way things were?

I think not. Time, like many things, is a man-made construct. This idea that a new year will bring immense change is a large burden to place on ourselves. Yes, 2021 is going to provide changes and opportunities. We’ll have a new president. We will hopefully have greater access to the COVID vaccine making herd immunity a real possibility. We may have some realistic resolutions in place.

But let’s look back at 2020 and think of some of the good that may have come out of it. We saw social justice in action. Some of you may have joined your first protest. Some of you may have voted for the first time. We developed a vaccine in ground-breaking time. We used our voices to make changes that might ultimately improve our communities.

For me, here are a few intentions that I started in 2020 that I plan to carry into and throughout 2021:

1) continue taking care of myself through good foods, meditation, and yoga
2) spend more time with folks who empower, support, and unconditionally love me
3) take more screen breaks
4) spend more time outside
5) watch less tv

What are some intentions you want to carry through 2021?