2023-12-26 12:07:56
Cycle closures are usually accompanied by nostalgiaof this bittersweet emotion that combines sadness for something that ended with the joy that such a thing could have happened.
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They are usually – or used to be – moments to stop along the way and look backrecapitulate events, identify milestones, celebrate achievements, honor the process, draw learnings, and after taking stockending a chapter to continue with the next.
I say “used to” because our world is moving so fast and we are running so much, that It has become difficult for many to make that stop along the way. As if the logic of today did not allow us to make “stops”, as if stopping was forbidden; and then the year is just ending and The minds of many are already traveling to 2024 or even gave it a couple of turns. There is no time to feel nostalgia, gratitude, or anything else we feel about what we have accomplished this year.
At the end of a cycle it is common that, when the noise and speed decrease and we give silence and stillness a chance, deep existential questions appear regarding what are we doing with our life and where are we going with it:
Is this the life I want to live? Is this the person I want to be? Is this the relationship I want to be in? Is this what I want to work on? Am I neglecting something that is important to me? me? If I am taking steps towards what I want?
And then, on one side or the other, a kind of melancholy usually sneaks in. When when asking ourselves these questions – or even without asking them – things like: “Another year and I still…”, “This year is over and I without…”, “Another year in which I did not achieve or fulfill…”, or , “How good it was when…”, “I wish everything was like…”; There is the uncomfortable or painful encounter with the lack, the nostalgia for what one day was and is no longer, or the hopeless longing for what we hoped our life would be for this moment.
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Or, when it is the opposite, when Asking ourselves these questions allows us to realize everything we have, how lucky we have been and how grateful we feel, the fear ends up infiltrating that all that will end, nostalgia for the future appears in anticipation for when suddenly we no longer enjoy everything we enjoy today: the company of beings loved ones who are aging, the presence of children who are growing, the romantic details of the couple we are building, health, work, money, friends, etc. And that infiltrator ends up in many cases spoiling or sabotaging the enjoyment and joy of the present with the question: How long will it last?
The end of a year confronts us with the idea that time is running out, that life is happening, that we have changed and those around us have changed, and the relationships we have – or had – with them. It puts us in contact with that melancholic nostalgia of what one day was and what one day will no longer be, it puts us face to face with a reality of life: impermanence. Anything It is forever, neither what we love so much nor what hurts us so much.
Then, either nostalgia appears that leads us to cling to the past, or anxiety appears to anticipate the future, and in both cases we miss the opportunity to inhabit the present, which is precisely where life is happening. Let’s give ourselves permission to live life today, to FEEL it how it feels today, before planning and defining how it should feel in a year and what we are going to do to achieve it. And furthermore, let us give ourselves the gift of recognizing the path we have traveled that brought us here: the decisions we made, the first steps we took, the moments of courage, the challenges we faced, the moments we enjoyed, the mistakes we made, the pain. what we went through, the goals we achieved, and everything we learned.
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Stopping is necessary and closing is important. All that remains of the effort is fatigue. My invitation today is to slow down, to stop running on automatic and give a place to pause, to get off the frenetic train of productivity and productivism for a while, and sit calmly to recapitulate the journey traveled this year. There is no need to rush to plan next year, there is no desire to define goals and purposes for 2024; It is worth enjoying the moment and the place we are in today without rushing to answer the question: what next?
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