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8 Ways to Get Fresh Starts on Your Calendar
If you haven’t done these things in a year, now is the time
Many of us have spent the past few weeks acknowledging the anniversaries: of the last time we went to an office, or that our children went to school, or that we ate inside a restaurant.
It’s a sad time, and a strange one, but it’s a hopeful one, too. After a long year-plus, every one of those anniversaries is for something we may be able to do again somewhat soon. Which means that right now, about a year since the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic, is a good moment to start readying your life to expand again.
What haven’t you done in a year that would make your life better and less stressful? Here are eight tasks you probably should get to if you haven’t since the pandemic began. Think of them as a leap of faith that everything is, however slowly, getting back to some semblance of normal.
Make that doctor’s appointment
When the Covid-19 pandemic nulled all non-essential medical appointments, my family had at least eight pending visits to the dentist and doctor on the books. Most of them ended up happening after a few months’ delay, when non-essential visits began to feel a little bit safer again, but I’m still putting off rescheduling my mammogram — not because of the pandemic, but because mammograms are unpleasant and make me feel old. There, I said it.
I know I’m running out of time to keep making that excuse. If you’re falling into that bad habit of using the pandemic as cover to keep avoiding some appointment, now’s the time to grit your teeth and make it. Ask a friend or your partner to make the appointment for you if you really need to. If it’s dental phobia (this is way more common than you probably think!), call the office and explain your fear. (Any dentist worth seeing will be kind, empathetic, and willing to put you at ease, or write a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication.) If you’re avoiding the doctor…
