Key Takeaways:

• Time might be a human construct, but how we feel about it is very real.

• Take a moment to reflect on your first month of 2023 – how did it feel? What did you notice about yourself in the New Year? Where might the next month take you?

• Notice if you feel like this year is flying by. Notice if you feel like this year is dragging. What changes can you make to feel more balanced?

Believe it or not, we are already one-twelfth of the way through 2023. Depending on who you are and how you measure time, that might feel meaningless or full of urgency. Either way, the transitions between months allow us to mark and measure the passage of time and acknowledge change as both an external and internal constant.

Time passing so early on in the year has a tendency to feel “pressurized” – as if each moment has a heavier weight attached to it than it might later in the year. This can stem from expectations around new years resolutions, re-entering routines after holiday disruptions, or other shifts that might be occurring in our lives at the start of the year. Allow yourself to acknowledge these feelings of pressure, urgency, and expectation as temporary and influenced by social pressures around the new year. Once you’ve acknowledged this, check in with yourself about how you feel 2023 is going for you so far. Below are some questions to use to check in with yourself:

• What am I proud of myself for so far in 2023?
• What areas of growth have I identified for myself this year? Have I begun to work on them? If so, how? If not, when do I want to make time?
• What am I looking forward to this year?
• How am I becoming the person I want to become this year?
• Notice if you feel like this year is flying by. Notice if you feel like this year is dragging. What changes can you make to feel more balanced?

Spend some intentional time with the last question. It is possible that your year feels like it is both flying and dragging; oftentimes categorizing is not as clean cut as we would like. Early on in the year, it is inherently hard to feel a sense of balance. We are still wrapped up in parts of our prior year, while preparing for all that is still yet to come in our present year. Remind yourself that there is always time to work on finding balance. In our constantly changing external and internal environments, balance is a goal to work towards rather than one to simply achieve.