Instead of making resolutions last new year I decided to choose a ‘word of the year’ to help guide me through. It was supposed to be a rough road-map rather than a rigid rule-book, pointing me in a general direction of travel rather than requiring a fixed destination to be reached at the end of it. As ever I started out with good intentions then lost my way a bit as the year progressed, but I can still look back and see progress overall so that has to count for something!
My word for 2025 was ‘connect’ and I chose to break that word down into seven component parts, with one specific area of connection corresponding to each letter – so I had creativity, others, nature, nutrition, emotion, challenge, and today.
Creativity has definitely gone well this year – I joined an online art group back in February and am still taking an active part in that same group today. I’ve also taken three short, free, online courses over this last year as well as one three month long paid course, so connecting with my ongoing art practice has definitely taken a positive turn this year…
Others have definitely played a bigger role in my life this year than the year before – we reconnected in person with three sets of old friends we always keep in touch with virtually but distance means meeting up is never easy. It felt really good to catch up in real life, in real time, and we’d certainly love to be able to repeat that experience again… I’ve also made contact with a couple of old friends who I’d lost touch with over the years, so although life commitments etc means we’re only communicating virtually for now, it’s a start so I’ve decided that level of connection counts too!
Nature is a tricky one for me to judge – I’ve always spent time in nature, going for walks and enjoying the garden, so I can’t honestly work out whether I’ve spent any more time connecting with the natural world in 2025 than I would do usually. But at least this year I’ve kept up my awareness of where I’m at or what I’m doing in the moment, which helps me acknowledge and appreciate it all so much more…
Nutrition – Hmmm… After a great start to the first half of the year, sadly things started to fall apart after I went back to work. At home it was easy enough to eat reasonably well, with plenty of time for food prep and choosing for myself when to eat (or not), but since I started work again in August I’ve found myself slowly returning to old bad habits again… It’s just not so easy when working hours dictate to a certain extent when you can eat, which often has a knock-on effect as to what you eat – well it does for me, anyway… Sadly right now that one’s feeling more of a disconnect, leaving plenty of room for improvement…
Emotionally I feel a lot calmer and in tune with myself than I felt this time last year, so I suppose that means things must have moved on a bit for me? I’ve certainly read a lot in depth to help improve my understanding around some of my most troublesome issues and so feel much more settled in some areas, although others still need a lot more work. Happily my mood has been much more stable overall, although I still have my moments – but I feel that things are heading in the right direction…
Challenge – going back to work after a two and a half year break has certainly been a challenge, physically and mentally, but I’m doing fine and have settled in to the new routine reasonably well (apart from reverting to bad eating habits!). My new hip isn’t giving me too much grief, and it feels good to be an active member of society again. But I also need to recognise I’ve challenged myself in other ways, too – taking art classes and facing up to my emotional demons have each challenged me in different ways, but I’m still keeping going with both, which is a good thing…
Today was supposed to be a reminder to live in the moment rather than constantly ruminating over the past or fretting about the future, and I’m not sure how successful that’s been overall. When I’m in a creative mood, engrossed in my art, I’m definitely connecting in the moment, and when I’m out for a walk I can actively keep myself centred in the here and now, but otherwise I’m still very much a work in progress on that front…
So looking back over 2025 it’s (nearly!) all gone OK, especially for a first attempt at choosing a word of the year. I wasn’t at all sure where I was going with it so perhaps over-engineered the whole idea in the first instance. So going forward I feel I might try to make it all a little less complicated next year, keeping things more open to interpretation to allow for potentially changing direction as I go along…
Thankfully I’m still keen to choose a new word of the year for 2026, as an idea it worked so much better for me than setting those old rigid resolutions I then resolutely disregarded in disgust after a few weeks! 🙂
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