Holding onto hope after 'holiday hangovers'

A JOURNO'S VOICE

- KEANAN HARMSE

As 2026 brings a new dawn that descends upon our weary eyes and we reluctantly return to our offices like zombies and respond to 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 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.