Written by Chloe Brewster, Illustrated by Rachel McDonagh
Approaching new beginnings with excitement
New years always seem to slap me in the face. The recovery from all the family socialising of Christmas hits hard, and then suddenly you’re gazing towards the upcoming year, desperately wondering what happened to the last.
With the cost of living crisis, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and ongoing political unrest, for many 2023 is not a year they are hopeful for. New beginnings can often be shrouded in anxiety, but there are always ways in which we can help tackle it.
Goal Setting
For many, making goals for the New Year is somewhat of a cliche, but it can also be essential to motivate us, and to help mould ourselves into the best we can be. By making small changes to elements of our lives that we are unhappy with, we can gain more control of our situation. Examples of this could be the amount of sleep we are getting, diet choices, our academic organisation, our financial organisation, or the way we act within our relationships.
Goals can be both specific, such as travelling to a certain country, and continuous, such as getting 8 hours sleep per night. Resolutions which include both can be positive for mental health, as long as they are achievable for you. Making goals should never make you feel worse, and they do not always have to be about restricting. Self care goals could simply be to treat yourself more, improve your work/life boundaries, or to spend more time with your hobbies.
Making a vision board really helps me to romanticise my goals. Setting the vision board as a lock screen or pinning it up also stops us from making a list that will just get buried in our notes app!
I used Google docs to layer images from Pinterest which aligned with my goals. Pinterest images are often more aesthetically pleasing, so can help with feeling positive about more difficult aims.
Illustration by Rachel McDonagh
Organising
A clear space enables us to have a clear mind, and this can be employed into so many areas of our lives. Your bedroom, your house/flat, your computer documents, your phone layout, your wardrobe… There are so many things, no matter how small, which can help us feel like we are starting out fresh. One passive form of organising could simply be deleting unnecessary images from your camera roll, or deleting apps that are unused.
Academic stress is huge at this time of year, so small steps to alleviate any future stress, such as organising notes into terms, compounding reading lists, and clarifying important dates will make a huge difference in how you feel when exams roll round.
Illustration by Rachel McDonagh
Making plans
During the pandemic, Shevaun Neupert, a psychology professor at North Carolina State University, spoke to BBC Worklife about the importance of making plans in preserving our mental health. She explained how planning can be a form of ‘proactive coping’ against the unexpected. Scheduling future events, no matter how futile, can help us return to ourselves and alleviate anxiety. Events don’t have to be huge, even something as simple as getting a haircut, taking a walk, or going for coffee can give us a higher sense of motivation, and bring more colour to our future worries.
There are many free blogs, YouTube channels, and magazines which are dedicated to self care, goal-setting, and motivation.
Sometimes, it can be hard to get yourself out of bed, let alone make huge goals for self improvement. Small steps can be just as beneficial for our mental health, and I hope that this has given you some ideas on how to get started :)
About the Author: Chloe Brewster
I’m a first year Journalism student, loving all things news. I am also in Swim Society, so you’ll always catch me out on Purple Wednesday! :)
About the Illustrator: Rachel McDonagh
Rachel is a current student at the University of Portsmouth. She completed her BA in Animation in 2021 and is currently studying towards an MA in Illustration. She's incredible at getting started and not knowing when to stop. When she's not making something, she is usually thinking about what she'll make next!
(This piece was edited by Amber Turner-Brightman)
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