My word for 2026: Healing (and why I chose this word)

I gave up on concrete New Year’s Resolutions years ago. Inevitably, they led to disappointment and self-recrimination. Instead, I choose a theme word. My word for 2025, like 2024, was “Simplify.” I aimed to simplify things in my life, both digitally and in person, and thus carve out more time to work on my novel writing.

One of my goals in 2025 was to submit a middle grade novel to my editor.

This did not happen.

I started to get more and more frustrated with myself, especially during the last half of the year. Why was I suddenly having so much trouble focusing? I was also beating myself up with questions like “what if my editor gets tired of waiting and loses interest” and “what if I can never find focus again??”

Finally, I forced myself to take a breath and thought about 2025, during which:

– A dear friend was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma in February.
– I had glaucoma surgery in March. I still have a blind spot in my right eye and a small one starting up in my left eye, but at least things are stable for now. I’ll go back for a follow-up in six months.
– A close friend died in September, suddenly and totally unexpected. Devastating and heartbreaking for all of his friends, and of course especially for his wife (who is also a friend of mine).
– My 94-year-old father had a fall and hit his head in October. Happily, there were no serious consequences but it was a wake-up call that lifestyle changes were needed.
– The youngest son of close friends had a stroke in November, and is now undergoing rehab and physical therapy as he gradually learns how to walk again.

Duh, I thought. No wonder you had trouble focusing.

I spent a great deal of time and emotional energy helping people I cared about. I do not regret that time in the slightest and am so grateful for the opportunity to help because they helped me feel like I was doing something.

I also learned the importance of setting boundaries…I was forgetting that to be able to support friends and family, I needed to remember the reasoning behind the “put on your own oxygen mask first” advice. I needed to set aside time for me to rest, to re-energize (for me, this means solitary quiet time).

For 2026, I’ve chosen the word HEALING.

For me, this includes:

• Emotional healing. I’m going to try my best to NOT let the past define my present. Going to stop being so frustrated about not having my novel ready to submit yet again, going to try very hard to focus on the future. Finding other ways of looking after my mental health, including being more aware of how much time I spend on social media.
• Physical healing. Between my vision issues and physical issues (tendinitis), I need to be more aware of self-care. To stop ignoring my “take a break away from the keyboard” reminders. To not power through pain. To be more aware of my energy levels, and not spend so much time trying to help others than I forget to take care of myself.
• Trying to be more consistent in what used to be my regular meditation time and physical exercise habits, no matter what else is going on in my life.

In boundary-setting, this means I am saying no a lot more often, even when it means missing out on a fun social event or networking opportunity or trip or not being able to help every person who asks for it etc. Sometimes this results in hurt feelings and anger, because of course the other person isn’t aware of my full context.

For those of you noticing that I’m not on social media quite as obsessively as usual, this is also part of my goal of setting boundaries.

The word “healing” isn’t the best word, but I’ve put it on a small post-it note and pinned it up in my office (replacing my theme word of the previous two years, which was “simplify”). Hopefully it will keep me on track. 🩷

Whether or not you do New Year’s Resolutions or find your own theme word, I wish you all the best for the coming New Year!