New Year Signals: Why 31st and 1st January Feel Bigger Than They Are

There’s always a strange kind of pressure that hangs in the air around the New Year - even if you’re not someone who buys into it. Some women go out. Some celebrate. But so many sit in their pyjamas, eating leftovers, half-watching something cosy, half-scrolling, and quietly wondering if they’re supposed to be “feeling something profound.”

There’s an unspoken idea that 31st December is the day you should be reflecting, reassessing, reinventing…and 1st January is the day you should suddenly become your best self.

But most women don’t feel that way. Most women feel tired. Held together by adrenaline. Emotionally overstretched from December. And craving stillness, not transformation.

So if you’re the kind of woman who slips into the New Year gently - maybe even reluctantly - this is for you.

The truth about resolutions (and why they feel so… cringey)

New Year’s resolutions are basically diet culture dressed up as “personal growth.”

Do more.

Be more.

Fix yourself.

Become a new person.

And we all know it doesn’t work like that.

Studies show that most resolutions don’t last more than 2–4 weeks, not because people are weak, but because the timing is completely wrong for the body.

Your nervous system is still in winter mode. Your body wants rest, warmth, nesting, slowness - not discipline and reinvention.

There is nothing wrong with you if January doesn’t feel like a fresh start. You’re not meant to bloom in winter.

Why big life decisions suddenly feel urgent right now

It’s not just goals -it’s relationships, too.

Statistically, the period just after Christmas and into early January sees a spike in breakups, separations and major decisions.Therapists and divorce solicitors even call early January “divorce season.”

Why?

Because the quiet after Christmas gives women space to hear themselves again.The noise dies down. The distractions drop away.The emotional honesty that’s been buried all year rises up.

It isn’t about impulsive decision-making —it’s that the body finally has the stillness to tell the truth.

If things feel clearer, shakier, heavier or more obvious right now, you’re not alone. The New Year brings things to the surface — not because of the date, but because life becomes quiet enough for you to hear what you’ve been carrying.

We are still in winter. Of course you’re not ready to ‘start fresh’.

This is the part nobody says loudly enough:

January is not a natural new year. It’s the middle of winter.

In nature, nothing is blooming.

Nothing is rushing.

Nothing is reinventing itself.

Everything is resting, conserving energy, lying low.

Many cultures honour this.

• The Persian new year (Nowruz) begins in March, at the spring equinox — when light returns.

• Lunar New Year falls late January to mid-February, aligned with the moon, not the calendar.

• Pagan and earth-based traditions recognise spring- Imbolc / Ostara - as the true beginning of the year.

• Even animals know: winter is for survival, not transformation.

So if January feels like the wrong time to “become a new you,” that’s because it is.

Your body is not out of sync.

The calendar is.

So what if the New Year didn’t ask anything of you?

What if this year you didn’t:

• reinvent yourself

• start a new regime

• make a resolution

• force motivation

• pretend you’re ready to bloom in the dark

What if the only intention you set was this:

Listen. Rest. Restore.

And let your real new year begin when your body is ready — not when the calendar says it should.

Love

Alaine

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