With the start of a new year I thought it was fitting to share my word for 2022. I’ve been grappling with my choices during these first few days of January. In the past two years, my word was easier to select. “Allow” in 2020 flowed from my study of mindfulness. In 2021, “compassion” seemed perfect for the second year of the pandemic when the world was facing so much division and loss, including grieving my own losses of my two sister-in-laws I and F.
While things are improving, it’s clear that a new normal may be here to stay. Like my aging body, there’s no going back to the way things used to be. Paul McCartney’s song “When I’m Sixty-Four” resonated with me last week as I turned that magic number. It’s not only time to accept, it’s time to embrace the present.
OMG I think I found my word for 2022. It’s EMBRACE!
I kicked off the new year with a road trip to Florida, stopping in St. Augustine on the way
Choosing a word
The Well columnist for The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope, says: “The past two years have been uniquely challenging for most people, and picking a word to guide you during the third year of the coronavirus pandemic is a good way to take back control. The value of this word exercise is that it helps you focus on the things that are most meaningful to you and the positive changes you’d like to make in your life, no matter what 2022 has in store.”
In her recent Well newsletter, Tara also quotes experts including health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, who says her word “describes how I want to direct my energy.” And health educator Andy Milne, who writes “I visualize this as a word that sits on my shoulder and gently nudges me toward a more improved version of myself.”
My inspirational word for 2022
The more I say embrace the more I’m feeling it. Let’s see what Oxford has to say about embrace. As a verb it means to “accept or support (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically. It also means to “hold (someone) closely in one’s arms, especially as a sign of affection.”
I really like this word embrace. I like its energy, like Dr. McGonigal says. I also think it’s going to be a great word to “sit on my shoulder”each day as Andy Milne suggests.
Embracing the new year with emotional highs
Embrace aligns well with with the theme of my 12-month horoscope. In 2021, my horoscope forecast was spot on. Wonder if it will prove true again in 2022? Here’s what star astrologer Colin Bedell predicts for Capricorn (if you want to check out your sign click here):
Image credit: Well & Good website
Pleasure, creativity, self-disclosure, good, old fun. “Wow-o-wow,” I think 2022 is going to be a year I definitely want to embrace with greater emotional vocabulary. It aligns with all the self-care I’ve been working on to “stop, breathe, and be.” It’s about time I “lighten up” and let go of constant “doing.”
Lightening up with sunshine
I’m excited about the next 12 months and all the emotional highs that I hope will be coming my way. Like 2021, I’m sure there will be challenges and emotional lows I’ll have to manage through as well.
Instead of snow I’m shoveling sunshine this winter
For now, I’m going to focus on good, old fun as I settle into my temporary home in Florida. I’m officially a snowbird for the winter and the weather report says sunny skies for the week ahead. No more shoveling snow in my mid-sixties forecast. As my cousin R says, “tell them you’re shoveling sunshine if anyone asks.”
Wishing all my readers and followers a happy and healthy new year! I hope you’ll embrace 2022 with me and live life to the fullest every day. Have you picked a word for 2022? If so leave a comment and LMK.
Judi
