fbpx How to Pack Your Suitcase for 2025
Authored by Nexus Family Healing on January 23, 2025

The new year is in full swing, with this time of year being filled with optimism and hope, and feelings of a fresh start. It can also be a time of anxiety and uncertainty with many wondering how to best prepare themselves and their families for the coming unknowns. To help yourself and your loved ones move successfully into the new year, we’re giving you tips to pack your theoretical suitcase to bring the good things with you and leave the rest in 2024. 

How to pack your suitcase

Plan a sit down with your children, your spouse, or your close friends, whoever makes sense for you. This could be over family mealtimes, a small party, or you could make a game of it – for example, take a deck of cards and hand one out to everyone, and whoever has the lowest card goes first. If you have young children, you could even use a real suitcase and pack it with items around the house to represent what you are “taking with you” into 2025. 

Ask the following questions to help everyone close out 2024 in a way that supports their mental health, and helps them “pack their suitcase” for 2025:

  1. What happened this past year that you want to take forward with you? Identifying these moments focuses on what helps us be and do our best. Recognizing actions that you took to improve your life allows for gratitude and appreciation of the work you did, which positively impacts your mental health and creates a more positive outlook on life. Some examples of what to take with you could be:
    • The feeling you had when you faced “x” challenge and overcame your anxiety to succeed (a test, a game, a performance) – recognizing your perseverance, hard work, patience.
    • The happiness you felt when you caught your first fish on the family vacation – or when you went to camp for the first time. 
    • The beauty of nature after you hiked that long trail or canoed in the Boundary Waters.
    • The fun you had exploring a new place, new subject at school, new hobby.
  2. What do you want to leave behind in 2024? Just as you want to identify moments to take into the new year, also take a moment to identify what you want to leave behind. This isn’t to ignore these moments and feelings, but to acknowledge that hard things will occur, and you can make intentional choices on how to handle these occurrences and take meaning from them.  Some examples of what to leave behind could be:
    • Perhaps you dealt with an illness in the family or suffered a loss.
    • You were disappointed in how you managed a specific challenge you faced or were hurt by a friend.
    •  The school year wasn’t what you’d hoped.
    • Your priorities were temporarily out of alignment – you focused on the wrong things.
  3.  What lessons will you carry forward? For this question, put the focus on what was learned in 2024. Frame mistakes as learning opportunities, not something to feel ashamed about. Our “failures” help fuel growth and change. Some examples could be:
    • The personal strength you learned that you have, to help you manage challenges throughout the year.
    • How to deal with grief in a more positive manner.
    • How to be a better friend.
    • How to be more patient or more kind.
    • How to be a better sibling, partner, or parent.

 
Take these feelings and lessons and “pack them up” to carry forward – leaving behind those items that you don’t want to bring into 2025. By doing this, you and your family can learn and grow from the past year together and go into the new year confident that you can handle what is coming your way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

This blog article was contributed by Luke Spiegelhoff, Clinical Director Specialist for Nexus Family Healing.

 

 

 

Nexus Family Healing is a national nonprofit mental health organization that restores hope for thousands of children and families who come to us for community mental health servicesfoster care and adoption, and residential treatment. For over 50 years, our network of agencies has used innovative, personalized approaches to heal trauma, break cycles of harm, and reshape futures. We believe every child is worth it — and every family matters. Access more resources at nexusfamilyhealing.org/resources.