With each December, it seems that a sticky, sweet syrup of expectations dissolves in the air: everyone is gathering somewhere, discussing parties, booking restaurants, posting garlands and glasses. And if it suddenly turns out that there’s no one to invite, and there are no invitations either — a strange feeling of emptiness arises, as if something is wrong and not right. Although in reality, it’s just a social myth: New Year is just a night that can be spent in a way that benefits you, nothing more. Psychologist Radmila Bakirova shared ways to turn a solitary New Year into a resource rather than a drama.
Arrange an Evening That Is Impossible in Company
There are things that cannot be done in company by definition: watching a quiet movie without comments, cooking exactly what you want, going to bed when it’s convenient, not pretending to be cheerful. "New Year’s Eve is the perfect night for a personal celebration. You can plan a set of pleasures in advance: favorite dishes, a salt bath, candles, a book, a playlist of music that no one but you can tolerate. In solitude, there is the luxury of an honest ritual, which is surprisingly liberating," says the expert.
Shift the Focus of Attention
Most people celebrate New Year in companies where half of the guests are not particularly happy to see each other — that’s just how the tradition works. Spending New Year alone is not a marker of status or sociability, but an opportunity to breathe out at the noisiest point of the year. You can use the night as a chance to reset: summarize the year, write down everything that worked this year, what you want to close, and what you want to improve or change. A pause is not the absence of life at all, but its subtle and profound tuning.
Make a Symbolic Gesture for Your Future Self
When there’s no one to expect miracles from, it’s easier to create them yourself. One of the powerful rituals is to write a letter to yourself for a year from now. What advice will you give yourself, what dreams will you share? Such a gesture removes the feeling that nothing is happening specifically to you. On the contrary, it creates a sense of movement, as if New Year is not a huge void of loneliness, but a starting point.
Turn the Night into a Foundation for the Year Ahead
You can come up with a small project that starts on this night: choose a word of the year, create a vision board, sort through a drawer, write a workout plan, set a professional goal. "Choose any direction that creates a sense of strength, not self-pity. If you set it consciously, with joy and love, there’s a very pleasant feeling that your fate is in your hands and your responsibility; this is a mature position," emphasizes the psychologist.
Create a Small Tradition Exclusively for Yourself
If the night is turning out to be quiet, you can make it the beginning of a personal New Year ritual — for example, buy yourself a gift that you’ve long wanted but never got around to. Or prepare a symbolic dish of the year, or choose a new fragrance that will become the scent of the next cycle of luck.
