Your New Year’s resolution probably looked a lot different this time last year. You probably had high hopes and big dreams for 2020 to start off the decade with purpose and passion. You and everybody else in the world. And you certainly weren’t alone when March hit and everything changed. Perhaps your commitments were already slipping behind. Perhaps you were exhausted from trying to maintain unrealistic resolutions that didn’t fit anymore. Perhaps you were ready for a break.

Regardless of your circumstances, you were thrown like we all were, into a brave new world of mask mandates, social distance protocols and worldwide lockdowns. With gyms closed and only certain activities optional, you stayed home if your career wasn’t deemed essential. So you stayed home. You ate. You slept. You dealt. Every day for months, not knowing when it was going to end, wondering if it would ever end. Still wondering.

As we turn the corner of a difficult year, we are faced once again with the New Year and the daunting thought of resolving anything. So perhaps it is time we adjusted our expectations. Maybe, just maybe, 2O2O was what we needed: a time to rest, reflect, and regroup. Maybe we need to look at the new year in the same way—as a time to continue a period of much need rehabilitation in our busy, modern lives. Maybe health and wellness doesn’t look like hitting the gym every morning before heading to work all day coming home to chores or children and going to bed exhausted from pushing ourselves too hard. What if we all collectively decided to just chill and engage our parasympathetic nervous systems to rest and digest? As humans we evolved to survive but survival mode has a drastic effect on our bodies and no longer suits the contemporary condition. What if we looked at wellness from within rather than without?

In Coeur d’Alene we are luckier than most. Our city is still open, our businesses thriving, and more people are moving here everyday. But just because we aren’t facing a second round of lockdowns at the moment doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to rethink what being healthy in 2O21 looks like. Instead of falling back into the routine we have an opportunity to cherish the precious gift of life right in front of us. It’s easy to look to the past and hold ourselves accountable for our faults and failures and equally as easy to hope for a bright future void of previous mistakes but perhaps this time is calling us to focus on the only time we have: the present.

Practicing mindfulness does just that—it provides an experience centered around the moment, and it only takes a moment. You can have all the muscles, you can run all the miles, and you can eat all the greens but if your mind is cluttered with negative self talk, fear and doubt then are you truly a healthy individual? You may look great in a swimsuit but if you treat your partner or children or colleagues with resentment are you actually well? Reevaluating the definition of wellness is a communal effort that looks beyond the physical. If our body is a temple then our mind is an altar and every passing breath a chance to lay down our burdens and reconnect with what matters in this life.

What does being mindful look like in a frenetic and bustling lifestyle? It starts with quiet time, in a quiet place. Making time and space for this kind of solace may require an earlier wake up, or even just a few minutes in your car or office to clear your mind of the noise and just be. Doing is easy; checking off lists and hustling to make deadlines is a given. Being is just as easy once you make a practice of it.

In fact, let’s try right now. Get into a comfortable seated position, turn your phone on airplane mode and place your hands face up on your lap. Begin to breathe in through your nose—slowly and steadily. Once you comfortably reach the top of your breath evenly let the air back out through your nose, keeping your mouth closed. This is called nasal breathing, an ancient practice designed to connect your mind and body. When your breath is slow and full so is the mind. You can modify this practice by holding one nostril closed while inhaling and exhaling once through the other and repeating alternately. This practice not only clears the respiratory system [an arguably vital habit to establish during this time] but also produces a sense of mental clarity and physical calm when engaged with regularly and intentionally.

So the next time you feel the pressure of life overwhelming you, take a moment to breathe. Allow each thought to pass you by like a cloud in the sky and simply observe them with no judgment or stress and treat 2O2O the same way. You made it, you’re still here and you have everything you need to focus on what really matters this upcoming year: you. We need you at your best to reactivate your hopes and dreams for the coming months when who knows what will happen. The only thing you can control right now is yourself, so why not do so with intention and care? Allow yourself to feel what you feel and create space for yourself to manage those feelings with mindfulness.

Be kind to yourself and remember this ancient saying:

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”