With each December, it seems that a sticky, cloying 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 quite right.
Although this is actually just a social myth: New Year's Eve is just a night that you can spend 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.
Organize 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 have fun. "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," the expert claims.
Shift the Focus of Attention
Most people celebrate New Year’s Eve in companies where half of the guests are not particularly happy to see each other — that’s how tradition works. Spending New Year alone is not a marker of status or sociability, but an opportunity to breathe out in the noisiest point of the year. You can use the night as a chance to reboot: summarize the year, write down everything that worked out 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 deep tuning.
Make a Symbolic Gesture for Future "You"
When you can't expect miracles from anyone or anywhere, it's easier to create them yourself. One of the powerful rituals is to write a letter to yourself for next year. What advice will you give yourself, what dreams will you share? Such a gesture removes the feeling that nothing is happening to you specifically. On the contrary, it creates a sense of movement, as if New Year’s Eve 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 very night: choose a word of the year, create a vision board, sort through a drawer, write a workout plan, come up with a professional goal. "Choose any direction that creates a sense of strength rather than self-pity. If you set it consciously, with joy and love, there is 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’s ritual — for example, buy yourself a gift that you have long wanted to receive 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.
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