“Trust me when I say that one day it’s going to hit you– that you woke up happy, that you’re smiling for no reason, that your hands aren’t shaking anymore. One day, you’re going to remember what it was like to be you a year ago, or three years ago, or even a week ago, and you’re going to be so glad that you fought. You’re going to be so glad that you kept going.”
Bianca Sparacino
It’s the season of Elf, The Holiday, Christmas with the Kranks, Four Christmases– I think it’s true that Christmas doesn’t mark the end of the season, but it marks the beginning. December 26 is the second day of Christmas, and so on. Right?
Jesus is the reason for every day.
While the festive season is still in full swing, another year comes to an end. This month, we saw Canada get an offer to be the 51st state (sassy), the NY Rangers played terribly (and continue to), we contemplated quitting our jobs to focus on Christmas (kidding), Paris and Nicole got together for their Encore of The Simple Life, half the Christmas village markets were burned down in NYC, Daniel Penny was (rightfully) found not guilty. It was an eventful month. Each week had an interesting set of headlines.
The Simple Life, for me, is so nostalgic. I wasn’t allowed to watch it, but I still tried to seek out the clips and episodes on the VH1 site. It was one of the few things that made me feel like an adolescent in a very difficult period of my life. When I watched Paris and Nicole, I felt like a normal teenage girl. Here were these two women being ridiculously carefree and hilarious. Seeing them come together again will be epic. Here is to the Y2K era. Nothing beats the pre-iPhone era.
Loves it.
This month had some lovely moments. I loved seeing Delilah at the Wollman Rink at Central Park. We ice skated after some years of not skating. NYC felt more festive than in past years. America feels like it is coming into its own again post-election. I am here for it.
The truth is, every day is a gift. Every day is a new opportunity to grow and continue to evolve. I hope your December was incredible. I am wishing you an amazing, peaceful and beautiful start to the new year.
Given that this season often focuses on growth and new goals, I have included some fun programs and resources for different types of goals and hopes.
Books of the month:
Book of 2024:
Most anticipated book of the year:
Quotes
“It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that — no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.” Hunter S. Thompson
“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.” Jack Kornfield
“A society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” Thucydides
“Life requires crazy sometimes. The greatest feats of human achievement. The best life stories in history. The greatest companies ever built. The automobile. The airplane. The light bulb. All crazy ***** who weren’t afraid to jump. Every great business, every great life, every great story, requires a little bit of “F*** it.” The greatest things in history were accomplished by crazy people.” Andy Frisella
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” C.S. Lewis
“It becomes too dangerous to be that authentic as a human being. Maybe some of it is our own predisposition to be afraid to be known. We long to be known, and we’re afraid to be known.” Erwin Raphael McManus
“In order to love yourself unconditionally, you need to be operating with integrity. A key component of integrity is taking 100 percent responsibility for any problem, activity or life event in which you are involved. Less than 100 percent responsibility means you’re operating as a victim. More than 100 percent means you’re operating as a martyr.” Gay Hendricks, Conscious Living
“Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around, thinking it will protect us, when in fact it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from being seen.” Brene Brown
“The degress to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth they can accept about themselves without running away.” Leland Val Van De Wall
“Not setting boundaries is like going outside when it rains and expecting to stay dry.” Dr. Henry Cloud
“Never begin the day until it is finished on paper.” Jim Rohn
“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shock and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” Dr. Nassim Taleb
“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” C.S. Lewis
“I realized I can’t mope around and be discouraged and expect my life to workout the way I want. I had to get really honest with myself and change my beliefs. I had to start showing up every day because the emotions I am overcoming every moment to moment is way better than any drug or medication.” Vanessa Fitzgerald
“When life gets tough, some of us feel that we’ve lost the game and life has won. But life isn’t trying to defeat you. Life isn’t even a participant—the game is yours.” Mo Gawdat in Solve for Happy
“When you fear suffering, you’re already suffering from what you fear.” Michel de Montaigne
“We must learn to discipline our disappointment. Some people let disappointment destroy them, while others let it drive them– that’s a choice.” Tony Robbins
“We are never far from wonders.” John Green
“The pain passes but the beauty remains.” Auguste Renoir
“Our bodies are apothecaries. We convert our expectations into chemical reality.” Norman Cousins
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Solitude is the furnace of transformation.” Henri Nouwen
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Elinor Smith
“Life won’t always be perfect, but with emotional fitness, it will always be meaningful.” Tony Robbins
“When we killed authority we also killed ideals, we also killed inspiration, and instead of adults who are gentle and kind and aspirational for children, we ended up with adults who are weak, who lack conviction, who command no respect, who can’t even praise their children for acting right because then they would have to admit to a right and wrong.” Freya India on today’s adults
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” Steve Jobs
“We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Stuff
The Need for Adults by Freya India (“Adults were taught to weaken their convictions, soften their beliefs, that it was almost offensive to believe in anything deeply.”)
Reignite Your Relationships (a conversation between Esther Perel and Rich Roll)
Stop Abandoning Yourself: Overcoming Codependency (The Owaken Podcast)
The Only Way Out Is Through (The World’s First Podcast)
Starting 2025 on the Right Foot
For the one who wants to focus on mental health: Dr. Caroline Leaf is doing a 2025 Brain Detox that teaches processing emotions and all the tools. This will take place on the Neurocycle App.
For the one who wants to find the root cause of a health issue: Dr. Bradley Campbell’s Level Up Membership.
For the one who wants to be fit in winter: Balanced Roots Academy Winter Fit Program; address nutritional deficiencies.
For the one who wants to start a new lifestyle with community: Mindfull.so membership. The January Fresh Start Challenge starts January 6.
For the one who wants to learn to visualize or dream more: Gabby Bernstein’s 2025 manifestation challenge.
For the one who wants to optimize their brain: Any Jim Kwik Brain Optimization/Limitless Course or a Dr. Amen course (happiness course, memory course, insomnia course, healing ADD, etc).
For the biohacker: Aggie Lal’s courses.
For the budding writer: Beth Kempton has a course for you.
Thank you for spending the year, month to month, with me. I’m excited for what 2025 will offer. Looking back, 2024 was an incredible year with once-in-a-lifetime highs, and grief-filled lows.
During the season, as I received Christmas cards, I got one from a friend with her beautiful new baby. This was a friend who was deemed essentially infertile. As I held the card, tears filled my eyes. This baby is a miracle. And that’s the thing about life, it’s filled with so many miracles, twists and turns along the way. And one of the few things I am sure of is that we have to stay open to feeling alive. We have to dare. We have to open up. We have to embrace each day as a gift. We have to expect the miracles.
The miracles will come. I don’t think I mentioned this on the blog this year, but my word of the 2024 year was “miracle.” I spent a whole year reading about miracles, every day. Miracles are sometimes thought of as big, shock inspiring events. The truth is– there is miracle in provision, in honesty, in connection, in the word that cuts through us, in change, in slow trickling evolution. There is miracle in the dare and in awareness. In the trying again. In the silent prayer. The miracle is always with us.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 