2024 - The Year of Release

I've been selecting a word since at least 2019, with the exception of last year.  The month leading up to 2023 made for a lost year, but more on that another day.  The word I've chosen for 2024 is release.  I don't have clarity yet on why I chose this word, or perhaps it has chosen me; the year will tell.  

In the days leading up to the new year, I reread past journals, searching words, and while I found several that I liked release seemed to keep calling me back.  Then, while I was reading articles about resolutions I found one writer who talked about the origin of the word resolution.  It comes from the Latin resolvēre - meaning to loosen or release.  That sealed the deal for me, release would be my 2024 word.

I find it interesting, that the cultural norm is to vow to be a "new you in the new year" and each year we we put all these expectations in place.  Then reality comes colliding in around February and many of the chosen resolutions are on the curb like the tree and wrapping paper that ended the previous year.  In reality, we should go back to the Latin route of the word and let go, loosen, or release things?  

The only resolution I've ever stuck with is the one where I resolved to never make another one.  I hate diets and working out, so those never worked for me.  I was sick of feeling like I had to be a new me every year.  What if I like the me I already am and don't want a new one? What if instead, we all picked a word to guide us through the new year and spent more time releasing or loosening our tight grip on the having or getting the perfect (insert word here)? 

To accompany my word, I'll be reviving my journaling practice.  Yes, I said practice.  It is a practice for me and some years I practice it much better than others.  I'll be journaling my thoughts throughout the year, but I'm also reverting back to the practice of building a commonplace book.  If you're asking how this fits into release, stay with me.  

Journaling is such a personal thing, a vulnerability thing.  Something that in my opinion gives a journal a bit of a stigma around it.  When I say I keep a journal, many of you assume it's filled with my innermost thoughts.  Most of you would be disappointed to read the past years.  They're filled with notes about what we saw and did while traveling, what I ate, how much water I drank, and usually a snippet about the weather.  Rather dry stuff.  On the side, I've always kept one or two other notebooks for collecting quotes and reading notes.  This year I'm releasing the rules and stuffing it all in one book, or in my case several as I use a traveler's journal.

Along the way, in reading articles about resolutions I came across the most fitting question -

"What can I set down at the end of this year instead of carrying it into the new one?"

I have a list of things, including:

• Apprehension of talking about my art
• Burden of other people's secrets - people are very drawn to confiding in me
• Friends, where the season of friendship has ended
• Body shame - I'm my own worst judge
• Other people's energy and feelings that aren't mine - Empaths will understand this one
• Allowing external approval to outweigh my own

There's a little bit of vulnerability in that list, but it's where I am and where I plan to grow from as I release this baggage.

Have you chosen a word or are you more of a resolution person?