By Tanya Jolliffe RDN, LD, CIMHP
A little over a month ago, we were ushering in the beginning of 2022. For many years of my childhood, my brothers and I would spend New Year’s Eve with our grandparents while our parents enjoyed ringing in the new year with their group of friends. It was a real treat to be spoiled for the evening with many foods we loved and a board game or two. Before we knew it, it was time to watch the ball drop at Times Square in New York City on the television and then stand out on the front stoop banging pots and pans while yelling Happy New Year! Soon after we would snuggle into bed, way past our normal bedtime, and awaken the next morning to the smells of my grandmother already at work on the New Year’s Day meal of pork and sauerkraut in the kitchen.
As I got older, I noticed the joy I felt as a child on New Year’s Eve seemed to vanish. Whether attending a gathering with friends, taking in a movie, or staying home with a fire while watching the traditional ball drop at Times Square on television, I seemed to feel a bit of sadness. Sadness that another year had sped past at lightning speed. Melancholy for what had been lost instead of hopeful about what was ahead.
Our mindset is a powerful thing. It not only determines our mental attitudes but also our physical and emotional responses. What is mindset? Beliefs you have that shape how you see the world and your place in it. Your mindset influences how you think, feel, and respond to a situation. My New Year’s Eve mindset had become focused on the past and what was lost instead of on the future and what was to come. One focus brings sadness while the other brings hope.
When I decided to let scripture shape my mindset about the coming of a new year, it was amazing how hopeful I became.
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)!
- “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” Isaiah 43:9 NIV).
- “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).
- “There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off” (Proverbs 23:8 NIV).
So, as you say goodbye to a tough year and hello to future possibilities, check your mindset. You decide the way you will think, the mental attitudes you will allow to form, and the way in which you focus on past experiences. You decide how you will talk to yourself and the type of inner dialogue you allow to play out. Set your mind on all that can be and start the new year with hope for what is to come with the help and guidance of the LORD.
“Love the LORD, all his faithful people! The LORD preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD” (Psalm 31:23-24 NIV).
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