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2017: A year to get your hope and peace back

Therapist says we can find peace by forcefully making it for ourselves.
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The year 2017 could be the year you take your life back and find some inner peace. To do that you might have to disconnect from the Internet and spend good quality time alone. 

Using as a springboard the general premise that 2016 sucked, Alina Kislenko and friends are planning a different kind of New Years party this year. They encourage others to do the same.  

Kislenko, a therapist specializing in ADHD and Asperger’s, is hosting Let’s Do 2017 Different. It’s like a future planning session.

The idea is to bring like-minded people together to envision a brighter year to come, and hopefully shake off some of the trauma that 2016 inflicted. They plan to have visioning exercises, crafts, goal-making, and reflections on the good, bad and ugly of the year past, throughout the day - but mostly the good. 

“We are going to get together and do some vision boards on the coming year – what we want 2017 to look like,” Kislenko said, adding that meditation, journaling, and colouring may also be part of the creative event. “Whatever meaningful, mindful things we can add to it. And a potluck.”

Planning for a better future, she said, is vitally important for our wellbeing.

“Usually we live our lives very reactively,” she said. “We just kind of go with whatever is thrown at us. But when we can step back and take some time to look back at what we learned from the year, what more we can learn from it, and what we want moving forward, often we can make the most meaningful change.”

The world pushes us around in all directions, but we have the choice to shape our lives and our future, she indicated.

“It’s not just doing what the world gets us to do, but taking the steps to be our own person,” she added.

We all seem to be busier than we have ever been, she said. And technology is filling up more of our time, particularly Internet-related technologies like social media, which are highly reactive, and hugely time-consuming.

“It’s really difficult for people to have time for themselves because we’re always distracted by our phones beeping, or our laptop telling us what to do, or our boss asking us something after hours,” she added. “There is very little peace unless we forcefully make it.”

Kislenko’s day of peace is on Monday. She shuts her devices off, tries not to go on the Internet, and dedicates the day to fun, creativity and reflection, exploring new ways to derive meaning from life.

“I think it should be that kind of reflection first-thing in the week, then everything else built around it,” she said. “As a therapist, I see the ramifications of people who are just go, go, go. Mindfulness has a huge impact on everything. If people have more time to think, and more time for themselves, it really helps them have better emotional regulation, and better empathy.”

The more quality time you spend with yourself, the more quality time you can spend with others when you’re with them.

Kislenko’s own 2016 was pretty good, but she said for a great many people the world over it was traumatizing. The results of the US election and the great number of celebrity death alone have had a deep impact on many.

“A lot of people had absolute hope for 2016, and it was dashed in a lot of ways,” she said, adding it is time to get that hope back.

New Years Eve is always an eventful time in the city, with parties and event everywhere.

Don’t forget the fireworks on Saturday at Sparkles in the Park. The Guelph Public Library’s East Side Branch is hosting Happy ‘Noon-Year’ at noon on Saturday. It’s a family event. Doors open at 11:45 a.m.


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Rob O'Flanagan

About the Author: Rob O'Flanagan

Rob O’Flanagan has been a newspaper reporter, photojournalist and columnist for over twenty years. He has won numerous Ontario Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award.
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