Don’t Call Them Resolutions | Psychology Today

In the last 10 years or so, I’ve come to loathe the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions have the stigma of being unrealistic and being broken by the second week of January. This year, I want to focus on a select few ways I can enhance my life, rise out of my high-functioning depression (and avoid slipping into a severe depressive episode), and simply feel better.

The first is to be an active participant in my therapy. I started therapy last week with a provider I believe will be a good fit. When I told her about my history of BPD, she didn’t flinch. She is also a writer, so we have that in common. I need to come to sessions with a concrete plan of what I want to talk about and put what we discuss into action.

According to the American Psychological Association, “One big shift in psychotherapy in recent years is toward greater mutuality—the notion that psychotherapy is a two-way relationship in which the therapist and client are equal partners in the therapy process. Therapists make this stance apparent in an ongoing way by, for example, disclosing their feelings when appropriate and actively inviting feedback from patients about how therapy is going.”

I want to read more. Reading is essential for a writer; I know that. My attention span has gone to pot, though. In “On Becoming a Thoughtful Reader: Learning to Read Like a Writer” (1984), P. David Pearson and Robert Tierney wrote…