As 2026 brings a new dawn that descends upon our weary eyes and we reluctantly return to our offices like zombies and dread the piles of emails that await us, I find our “holiday hangovers” are the perfect time for reflection.
Often fear and uncertainty seem to grip our conscience as we wonder what a new year holds for us, despite the optimism and new list of goals we’re excited to accomplish before December this year.
The birth of a new year is a wonderful time to shed some skin and meditate on the life and company we kept the previous year, now we can contemplate whether our personal choices and career sacrifices impacted our mental and physical well-being positively or negatively.
The first week of January also sparks our determination to carve out the best versions of ourselves. December and January are also known to record a rapid surge in gym memberships.
Now we’re so eager to abandon unhealthy diets, spring clean, dissolve toxic friendships or relationships or paranoid and stressful ways of thinking where we obsess over every situation that could go wrong.
As the classic adage says: “new year new me”, it’s a powerful mantra pushing us in the right direction, but it’s also an important reminder that our current career, weight, car or apartment is still a blessing we shouldn’t take for granted despite our lofty ambitions.
We all want economic freedom, job security, generational wealth and the “perfect summer body”, whilst overlooking the present time and our health and how many goals we’ve achieved in the past years.
They say comparison is the thief of joy and in this golden age of social media, it’s easy to feel exhausted at the breakneck speed global news is being spread every minute and our school friends purchasing new homes or getting married.
We can often wonder whether we are wasting our precious time by not pursuing new qualifications to further our careers that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is constantly moulding and reshaping with every day’s upgrades.
We may also have regrets for not achieving our personal goals last year despite the unpredictability of life where one may have to fork out a few thousand to fix an issue with the car and postpone a passion project or novel we were writing.
And yet, despite the heavy weight of all these dreams that could become quite burdensome, I find that the eery silence that follows the end of another festive season leaves such a poignant and powerful presence in our homes than our own calendar planning and neurotic worries for 2026.
Where once we saw a boat load of friends and family streaming in our homes or organising weekends away and road trips, now we’ll return to the cold quiet of our normal nine-to-four work schedules and perhaps only see each other for birthdays or funerals.
We’ll view each other from afar, liking photos or commenting on Instagram stories without really making plans to chat or gather for a get together.
Those evergreen carols that blanketed the nation and echoed in our homes, on radios and in the malls have softly hushed and disappeared like morning mist.
All the decorations, trimmings, snow sprayed windows are being wiped clean and hundreds of Christmas trees are being chucked back into the dusty garage as if people can’t bear the sight or memory of a precious time with family and friends.
Some may call the carols and the fever of the festive season an irritating cliche, a money-making scam like the Grinch.
Yet despite how old and wise I get with each year, it still evokes an innocence I’ll clutch onto and cherish, those childhood memories burn like embers every time I hear Michael Buble’s Christmas covers or Boney M’s “Feliz Navidad”.
Now the malls are redecorated with Back-to-School adverts and mannequins in black and white school uniforms are a reminder of the return to structure, discipline and hard work and sacrifice.
Now we hear discussions that our two- or three-week vacations ended so swiftly, and we wish we could’ve returned later to work.
I think it’s in indication that our lives have sped up dramatically and will show no sign of slowing down this year.
I think this fatigue or holiday hangover feels more intense once we realise how rare it is to sit with our family and friends and enjoy a packed feast, crack some jokes and catch up.
These moments become golden memories that warm us at our cubicles or traffic jams once reality hits and we remember the laughs, the hugs and love we felt, the precious company we had with loved ones.
These memories will reignite our bones and always sustain and humble us no matter how far we are from our personal goals.
We’ve survived deadly roads, we’ve witnessed racing between the lanes on freeways, our lives are as fragile as daffodils in the wind.
So may we enjoy our days with gratitude and work hard on returning to that family table where another feast with friends awaits us.
