Reflections on the Janvent calendar

I find January really hard. It’s cold, it’s dark and above all it’s lonely. The pretty lights have all gone even though it feels like we still need them and it can get us down. It definitely gets me down.

In an attempt to balance this out, last year I came up with the idea of the Janvent calendar. It’s like an advent calendar for January. (I don’t think I invented the idea because the hashtag already exists but I hadn’t seen it anywhere before so I shall say I came up with it).

A few of the janvent cards and some twinkly lights

I spent last January putting together a daily card and gift for me to open this January. Lots of them were to do with light, some to do with creativity, connection, getting outside, small doses of things that lift my mood without taking up much energy. Lots of the cards contained facts or quotes about light and lots of them contained mood lifting tasks. Among the tasks were things like ‘listen to this song’ or ‘dance to that song’ or ‘go for a walk’ but the ones that made the biggest difference to me were the ones that were about connection.

My second and most valuable of all the cards said ‘contact three of your favourite people (other than those you live with) and arrange to meet up before the end of the month (or as soon as you can)’ of all the cards this is the one that’s brought me the most joy. It also brought me some organisational, practical and social challenges, all well worth navigating and in the end I organised two group meet ups and a catch up with my oldest friend Lucy.

As it turned out, even without the Janvent calendar,  my January was probably one of the most social I’ve had. I returned to the wind band I had to leave a couple of years ago (this has been more joyful than I could possibly have imagined), I ran a stall and gave a talk at the inaugural Newcastle Wellbeing Expo, and I attended a beautiful and supportive networking meeting that I discovered a few months ago.

As I plan for next year I wonder whether I would like to have a Janvent calendar again, what changes I’d like to make, and what I’ve learnt about myself through the process. (For example that, although I very much want to spend time with Lucy, I do not want my January to include an hour’s drive on an unlit single carrageway in heavy fog in the dark, next time I'll get the train).

Janvent realisations

It’s a lot easier to ‘bother’ people (they don’t feel bothered but that’s not what my inner critic voice tells me) when I can send them a picture of a card that tells me to contact them and say ‘look, I had to’.

I do NOT enjoy having a gift every day, it results in there being loads of tiny things everywhere that then need tidying up. Many of them are a bit useless.

I have ignored many of the tasks as the month has gone on. I could have fewer tasks and make them easier.

My preferred form of creativity changes. Now it is music. When I made the calendar I was painting a bit more so the calendar contained lots of paints that I haven’t yet wanted to use.

I got easily as much joy from making the calendar as I have from opening it, if not more. This could be about doing something kind for myself or it could be about creativity or maybe both.

Plans for next time

Fewer gifts. Chocolate is a good gift but I want to go really minimal on the gifts that require me to do something (paints, glitter, etc.) and there’s no need for filler gifts, I don’t have to have something new every day.

More emphasis on community and connection, maybe create a social calendar for the month. I notice that myself and many others in my life feel a need to see or speak to everyone before Christmas, perhaps we could do the same in January.

Maybe make the tasks more nebulous and less prescriptive ‘where will your creativity take you today?’ ‘how does your body want to move today?’ ‘what music are you drawn to?’

Another thing that I hadn’t anticipated when I made the calendar was that I wouldn’t be properly well all month. I caught a virus before Christmas and although by now I have enough energy to do most essential things, I certainly don’t have buckets of it to spare. I have no idea how I’ll be feeling next January but it feels like it would make sense to keep things gentle with an option to go bigger if I feel like it. On a related note I’ve been giving as much attention as I can to identifying and following my inner voice so I’d like the cards to reflect that rather than telling me what to do.

So now over to you. How do you get on with January? If it’s hard, what could you do to bring more joy into it? How about making a Janvent calendar of your own?

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