By Dr. Gbonjubola Abiri

Imagine arriving at the office on the first working day of the year. You are seated in your car with low enthusiasm and energy. You step out and people around you are breezing in and moving on with fresh planners, energetic greetings and even a mantra for the New Year tagged: ‘Active’.

As you take your seat, you appear dazed. ‘Where did they get their energy from?’ You wonder especially as you don’t feel like hitting the ground running. December hadn’t quite turned out as you expected it to. There had been the major stressors of family pressures and tensions, economic uncertainty, lots of parties and the need to appear and make everyone, but yourself feel cheerful.

As the day goes on, you start to get into the rhythm of things. You attend a few meetings and ensure you deliver on the tasks assigned to you. Just before the day ends, you pull out your notepad and write down three realistic intentions for the week. Not goals to overhaul your life, but clear choices to protect yourself and your energy. In that moment, you feel an overwhelming sense of peace as you realize that the bandwagon effect is never necessarily the best one. You also reassure yourself that the year doesn’t’t need a perfect, but an honest version of yourself.

A brand new year comes with vast plans and expectations. This may not be unconnected to the inability to meet the previous year’s goals, but also the pressure of watching others brandish their achievements on social media at the end of the previous year and the start of a new one. For many persons, it doesn’t’t feel like a new year especially as the baggage of unmet expectations and ambitious resolutions take center stage.

Mental health reminds us that meaningful beginnings are often quiet, deliberate and rooted in self-awareness, not self-pressure. Starting well doesn’t’t mean denigrating yourself because of the things you planned to buy didn’t’accomplish in the previous year. It doesn’t’t mean drowning yourself in guilt and planning to punish yourself, your mind or your body. Instead, it focuses on self-compassion in a bid to achieve healthier and more sustainable results.

Starting well entails that you have honest reflections about setbacks, pitfalls, obstacles while also giving priority to rest, boundaries, seeking help and understanding that growth is never linear.

Starting well is also a great time to define what success means to you as an individual. Sometimes, it is in small bursts of progress, in stability, in acknowledging weakness, avoiding unhealthy patterns and in choosing yourself over and again.

Welcome to a new year that doesn’t’t need a perfect but a willing and healthy you.

Remember there is no health without mental health.