It is no secret from my blog that 2020 was an incredibly difficult year for me. With the start of a new year and 2021 coming up, in my current circumstances, the idea of a fresh start rings truer than it has ever done before. I am not a fan of the whole new year, new you because I don’t believe that a new year necessarily means drastic change - I believe in taking things step by step rather than expecting a transformation out of the blue. But, the opportunity to start fresh (especially around new year) has always appealed to me and even more so this year. 

Mindset is something on my mind a lot at the moment. I've been in a lot of difficult situations, which have challenged my mental health recently and more generally over the past year. Reflecting has led me to realise that my mindset is something I want to be more aware of in the coming year. I want to be more conscious of my thoughts. Think about things a little differently. I can’t change the situation I’m in, but I can change the way I think about it. 

2020 threw a lot at me and I found most of the time I was just struggling to stay afloat- I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way and that this probably resonates with a lot of people. But, this meant that I was not always necessarily engaging with my thoughts as much as I could. Questioning them as much as I could. 

The mind is a very powerful tool. What you tell yourself can massively change the way you feel. If you tell yourself you are strong, you can end up feeling strong. Coming to the end of 2020 and reflecting on all the pain from this year has made me realise that I want to engage with my thoughts more. Because not everything you tell yourself is true. Just because it is a thought in your head doesn’t make it true. Not everything we believe is true. We shape a lot of our truths - if we tell ourselves we are worthless, then we start to believe that and the opposite is also true. We can define our sense of reality through what we think and if we define our sense of reality through what we think, we can make ourselves feel better in a bad situation. We can create a fresh start for ourselves even if nothing in our surroundings changes. 

2020 has left us all in far from ideal circumstances, some worse than others, but COVID-19 was nothing anyone needed. Mentally, I feel exhausted and tired, as do most people after this year. I can’t change that or what is causing it because it is outside of my control. But, I can change the way I approach it. I can use this new year to look at things from a new point of view- to start fresh, a clean slate. 

I have been longing for the feeling of starting fresh for a while and have come to that conclusion that since my circumstances do not allow for that, that I need to create that for myself and that this is something we can all create for ourselves. We can all approach the very same problems in a different way. Remember not to believe all our thoughts automatically. Remember that not everything you say to yourself is true. That if you can distinguish your thoughts from what is happening in your surroundings and shape them, you can change the way you feel about everything. If the problem can’t be changed, maybe the reaction can so that we learn to better live with it. Thrive in spite of it.

Here is to 2021- not starting in the way everyone would have hoped, but through the power of our minds, we can create the fresh start we so desperately crave by changing the way we look at it.

I hope 2021 is the year where you find peace and can heal. Happy new year!