My word of the year…

Connection

I've been hearing more and more recently about a word of the year and have a good friend who talked me through her process. The last two years I have done projects linked to words and vision boards as ways to hold onto some good things but not a true word of the year so I wanted to explore this more.

How do you find your word?

For me a word of the year is about setting a vision or intention about what is important for you in the year ahead. It feels like this concept fits in well with values work and can help with finding meaning, purpose and direction in the coming year. The word can be anything at all, as long as it resonates with you. And remember your word might stay the same all year or even for many years, or it might change more often.

There are endless ways you could do this. Values activity, brainstorm, searching images, journaling, talking to friends, asking yourself questions like:

• What is truly important to me?

• How do I want to show up in the world? Who do I want to be?

• What does growth look like for me this year?

Pay attention to your words as you reflect, talk or write. What types of word repeat? Is there a theme? From that theme is there a key word than encapsulates many other words? You want to try and drill down to what is really at the core. It takes some self-reflection and time to allow it to come to the surface, trust that it will. And if you go with something and at a certain point it no longer fits that’s fine too, it just means your word has changed.

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This year my word is connection. Connection with:

• Self - I had originally thought my word was authenticity after some new diagnoses at the end of last year and wanting to explore new parts of my identity, but going deeper I realised that the word connection encompassed more of what I wanted this year to look like. And I will still explore authenticity through connection with myself.

• Others - Connection with others is really important to me as well. I want to embody this by connecting with other OTs in New Zealand and around the world, staying in touch with friends, building local connections and networks, spending time with people who are important to me - and having meaningful connections that go deeper and are nourishing.

• Nature - Connection with nature is one way I recharge, refuel and ground. I want more of that this year.

Once you have a word, what do you do?

That is completely up to you. There are many different options. Draw, paint, collage, scrapbook, write out the word and put it up somewhere, find something that represents the word and have it somewhere visible in your house. I find it useful to have something physical to represent the intention so that it’s not just in my head and it becomes more tangible.

One of the ways I did this was creating this graphic to capture the different threads of what connection means for me. The other words in this came from doing a values word sort activity as part of a workshop I ran recently.

Image description: a light orange background with words and images. At the top it says 'My word of the year' and in a blue lightbulb below this it says 'connection'. To the left the words 'with self' sit on purple wavy lines, other words are 'growth, authenticity, self-development, courage, curiosity'. Below the lightbulb the words 'with nature' sit on green wavy lines, other words are 'love and joy, belonging, creativity'. To the right the words 'with others' sit on blue wavy lines, others words 'co-creation, justice, making a difference'. Images are scattered around the graphic: a person lying on their stomach reading, a signpost with three arrows pointing in different directions, a person with their hands holding a big heart to their chest with the words 'I matter' above their head, hands holding a globe, four cutout people linked together, a box with coloured cogs and a lightbulb, hands clasped together, three balls with an outline of a person linked together with lines.

As part of that same workshop I also made a new vision board as a different way of visually representing the word connection and what it means to me for how I want to show up this year.

Image description: a vision board made out of phrases and pictures cut out from magazines. There are pictures of animals, nature and art. Some key words are: possible, comfort, be you, step by step, explore, changing course. In the centre is a yellow star with the word connection written in the centre and the words others, self and nature underneath.

So that is my word of the year and some ways I brought it out of my head and represented the concept in ways that worked for me. I have also set achievable action steps to take action and put this idea of connection into practice. It’s all well and good to know what your word is, but working out how you move towards it is just as important.

To give you some ideas, here are some examples of action steps for me:

• Connection with self - read books and listen to podcasts about ADHD and Autism, continue with therapy;

• Connection with others - attend board game group at least once a month, email local organisations about collaborations, interact with other pages on Facebook;

• Connection with nature - go for a walk at least twice a week, work in the garden at least twice a week.

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Do you have a word of the year? Reach out to me on Facebook, I would love to hear about yours!

[Note: nothing in this blog is intended to be therapy advice. If you need support to develop individual strategies around figuring out a word of the year and how that relates to your life please reach out to an occupational therapist or other health professional.]