Why Year-End Reflections Matter More Than Resolutions for Women

In a culture obsessed with moving on, women need permission to pause — and year-enders offer rare space to reflect, release, and reset

- NAMRATA KOHLI

As the year winds down, the world stages a performance of celebration - milestones polished, joy packaged, timelines filled with promotions and holidays framed into perfect captions. But beyond the glare of public happiness and the insistence on moving ahead, there waits a quieter emotion that asks to be felt, not flaunted: gratitude.

I have always been drawn to the idea of Thanksgiving - the harvest and gratitude festival observed in the West, particularly in the United States and Canada. At its heart, Thanksgiving is about pausing to give thanks for the year's blessings - food, family, health, community. Families and friends gather over a shared meal, reflect on what sustained them, and simply spend time together.

But gratitude does not belong to geography. It belongs to perspective. And for women who live layered lives especially gratitude is so important. We juggle roles that rarely come with applause - professional, emotional, caregiving, aspirational, invisible. Along the way, we carry burdens we seldom articulate: grudges swallowed to keep the peace, grief postponed because there was no time to fall apart, words left unsaid to protect others. These weights do not disappear. They settle quietly into our bodies, affecting our health, energy and sense of self.