If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard or seen the phrase “new year, new you” in the past fortnight, I certainly wouldn’t be a rich philosopher (we philosophers of course would never measure riches in cold hard currency anyway), but my cliché bank would be steadily accumulating funds.

Make Me A Plan was founded to help businesses and individuals run smoothly and be successful. It pains me to see people in pain, under stress, needing a helping hand and all of these feelings tend to be exacerbated at the turn of the year when finances are stretched, daylight is condensed and moods are maudlin.

As we quite literally head towards the light of British Summertime, the next four blogs in my Philosopher-In-Residence blog series will be themed around aiding mental health and wellbeing in the bleak midwinter.

Each blog will be themed around the traditional rhyme “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” You don’t have to be planning a wedding to benefit from this adage – after all, the longest relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself (and you can check out Project Planner Tamsin Cain’s Relationship With Self blog here).

SOMETHING OLD

We philosophical types are aware that time and space is a continuum. So why does the turn of the year – just a counting system after all – play havoc with our emotions, sense of foundation, direction in life?

The structure of the festive season in the Western world typically identifies friends and family structures as the central theme of life over November into December. Even if this is a system you enjoy, thoughts inevitably turn to people, and situations that memories were once shared with and are no more. Or, you may be one of the many, many people for whom Christmas is not a happy time. So, you have the former situation, compounded with feelings of loneliness, trauma, anxiety, bitterness.

“A stitch in time, saves nine,” as the saying goes. So, how does one make a proverbial stitch in time, to prevent hyper-emotions from Christmas-time casting a gloomy shadow over the ensuing winter weeks?

Make Me A Plan’s modus operandi is always minded to add a different dimension to whatever challenges clients are facing. There’s no point pretending something is happening, being felt, in need of being addressed, after all.

We therefore prescribe each one of you, who resonates with the above scenario, a Re-Branding of Something Old Project. There are two parts to said prescription, you can choose which is applicable to your new year mental health, or take both elements if you feel each would be beneficial.

Project Re-Brand Something Old: For Unhappy Memories

The My-Time Capsule

Take a sheet of paper. Screw it into a ball and then unfurl it again, so it looks a bit of a state to start with. Use your least favourite pen to write down the unhappy memory. Spell some words wrong on purpose. Make your writing as messy as possible. Put the paper inside an envelope and address it to The Ghost of Christmas Past. Postmark it with today’s date. Screw the whole thing into a ball again and stuff into the bin or recycling bag, depending on your circumstances (you can even bury in the garden if you have one).

This coping technique tells your brain and your body, repeatedly, that you didn’t deserve the unhappy memory and that you understand that, and it’s not associated with your future.

Project Re-Brand Something Old: For Happy Memories passim

Nostalgia can be beautiful, but also heart-rending. If this time of year has opened up the sadness in your soul for someone who is no longer part of your life, or a situation you cannot reclaim, use this technique.

Take a small piece of paper (such as a post-it note). Draw a tiny image of the happy memory on the square. Date it with the year you identify with the happy memory. Turn the post-it note over and sign off on the back with, From [Your Name], With Love.

Stick the post-it note in your diary, or somewhere at home you only go to periodically, so that the next time you know you will encounter that memory will be, for example, week 1 of February, when you spring clean a cupboard, and so on. You can then keep moving the post-it note to another date in the year, so you grow accustomed to making time to appreciate the memory, rather than blocking out the pain of missing something for 300+ days a year and then all your feelings about it being hugely amplified next festive season.

Try out and I’d love to hear how these techniques work for you.

Next fortnight, I’ll be musing On Something New. Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this topic you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning