We are almost one week into 2022. Feels very familiar doesn’t it? Covid cases are filling the hospitals and news. Healthcare remains a hotbed of controversy and nurses have some how gone from “hero” to “zero” in the past year.

How are you feeling? Are you tired and dreading facing another year, in the trenches, stretched out in front of you? OR are you invigorated by the brand new year full of possibilities?

Now is a good time to set your intensions for the year or just the day; depending on where you are at emotionally. If setting intensions or anything for a whole year seems daunting, you might want to try a practice that has become very popular. Pick a word for 2022.

What does that even mean?

Pick a word that will have meaning for you. Maybe a word that motivates you; or one that simply resonates with you at this moment and you want to carry it forward into the new year.

I can get behind this practice. Words appeal to me. Words are my love language. The written word. Words I can see. The written word is my jam. If you write me a note, I am good. You don’t have to talk to me, in fact, please don’t. Words hold a certain power for me. I take choosing a word very seriously. It’s like naming something or someone. It matters.

My word for 2022 is STILLNESS. Stillness is something I intend to find again this year. I am, by nature, a pretty chill person; however, I feel that I have lost some of that over the last few years. I am far too busy in my opinions, relationships, work, thoughts, feelings, and the list goes on. I want to find the stillness.

I can absolutely picture stillness in my mind. I can feel it. In yoga we are always coming back to finding the stillness within a pose. That isn’t to say one does not wobble or disconnect from their balance. They do, but they don’t get frustrated, they merely return to the calm using their connection to their breath. They find the stillness.

Stillness within is allowing thoughts to push everything aside and to settle like a feather on a breeze. A feather floating gently into non-flight; waiting to be picked up on the next wave of air.

That’s my word. That’s my why for my word.

What’s your word? I would love to hear. (forthenursessoul@outlook.com)