Emotional Well-Being in the New Year

Nick Zingarelli
Associate, Brown & James P.C.

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions
—The New Year; Death Cab for Cutie

Hello everyone! My name is Nick Zingarelli and I am a new member of the BAMSL well-being committee following my relocation to St. Louis from Cincinnati. I hope to be a regular contributor of this blog by providing my personal insights on how attorneys can focus on their own personal development of their selves. I'm not a counselor. Just someone that has had some interesting life experiences that will hopefully be beneficial for others.

I love to try to find meaning in song lyrics because music is a big passion of mine. Anyone else that listens to Death Cab for Cutie knows that their songs are often filled with deep themes of love ("Transatlanticism"), philosophy ("Soul Meets Body"), and loss ("What Sara Said"), among others. This one felt particularly appropriate as we kick off the new year. So often, we make New Year's Resolutions as a form of penance on where we have slipped up in the past and then frame the problems as having "easy solutions." In fact, problems that seem easy to fix are often far deeper to overcome depending on the person.

A person with a fast metabolism and a love for physical activity can more easily shed those extra ten pounds than a person that grew up with an eating disorder or a food addiction. Someone that truly is a "social drinker" can scale back those extra few beers a week, but someone that struggles with alcoholism faces the problem of "one is one too many, one more is never enough" (to quote another song).¹

As you work to try to hold to your resolutions (whatever they may be), try to be gentle with yourself. This isn't a "get out of jail free" card but don't let one mistake be a reason to throw away a good intentioned resolution. It's all about progress, not perfection. I hope each of you had a great holiday season and a fantastic start to your new year.

1. "You and Tequila" (Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter)