And so it begins...

Happy New Year Everyone!

We started slowly this morning, tired from a big dinner and a karaoke chaser with friends, complete with embarrassing photos arriving on Messenger (see below).

Today’s another holiday, almost the last of them for a while, and we walked in the bush with the dogs, smiling at how Christmas in Australia is about as far from a romantic winter wonderland as you’ll find.

I’ve been asking people about their most important experiences from 2024, and about their hopes for 2025. What are yours? How are you doing, as we begin another year on Earth?

I was fortunate to travel great distances in 2024. This year, I’ll likely be more focussed on the usual inner landscapes - my own and those of the therapy patients I work with.

This year I want to continue to expand my horizons socially, connecting with more people in non-professional contexts, reaching out to friends more often than had become my habit as a carryover from the lockdown years.

Connected to that, my other focus is to be more courageous in a deep sense, not so much in novel, physical adventurousness, than in the mundane stuff. It’s in everyday life and relationships that anxiety can take hold and constrict me, stealing my sense of ease and comfort and making everything feel tighter and more pressured than it needs to be, inside and out.

I want to keep questioning that habit. I hope to keep finding more courage to relax, rather than constrict, in the midst of everyday life with its tensions and challenges. It’s to do with lessening my grip on the illusion of control in certain situations, where it doesn’t serve me. That’s a major personal goal going forward.

Oh, and the other….writing…loads of writing.

What are you hoping for, aiming for? I’d love to hear from you. Also, if you have questions you’d like to ask a psychologist like me, send them in and I’ll do my best to answer.

Again, wishing you a happy, healthy 2025.

Love to you,