I think the stress and uncertainty of the last few years has left us with no real optimism. There's usually a lot more talk of New Year New Start and resolutions about getting your life generally better but now it feels like it's just dragging yourself past a check-in point on a fairly mundane racetrack.
This year I'm definitely going to try and focus on good things in my journal to see if I can improve my outlook.
Idk if it's just because I have completely removed myself from the news cycle, but I haven't heard anything about NYE this year, not even from friends and family on Facebook. I think everyone is just like "meh".
Not keeping up with the news is the best thing I did for my mental health in 2023. I have a vague idea of what's going on but not insisting on keeping up with the latest and worst has been a good move.
I had to cut it out of my life in 2020. I was so stressed out that my memory was bad, I wasn't eating, and I was sleeping like four hours max per night. I have seen no reason to add it back. If something important happens, it makes its way into everything, so I find out. I don't need to know every little stupid thing some stupid person says on Twitter 50 times a day, or every time some politician makes some terrible decision that hurts Americans. Neither of those things are news, they're business as usual, but they're treated as breaking news by people and news organizations. I'm much happier under my rock.