A huge sigh left my mouth this morning when Arnold, one of our cats, licked the shell of my ear before batting around the earbuds sitting on the side table. New year, new behavior? Not for this guy. He wanted me to get up and get him some food. And since it was 5:59 a.m., certainly not the earliest he’s ever woken me, I obliged.

I sighed again when I sat down at my computer, cereal on one side, coffee on the other, Jan 1 mocking me at the bottom of the screen. The new year has been a source of anxiety for me, especially since the November election, and now, with the turn of the clock, the marching of time, we’re approaching the inauguration of someone I feel can truly change the world we live in, and not for the better.

Hence, another sigh. Which got me thinking about the action and why we do it. According to the Cleveland Clinic,

Sighing can be an efficient anxiety reducer at times. Some experts hypothesize that people in anxiety-provoking situations may sigh in order to gain temporary relief from distress.

A study in 2022 found that sighing was connected to emotional responses like arousal, anxiety and pain.

“Negative emotional states — such as fear, anxiety and sadness — are in fact associated with sighing more often,” notes Dr. Hayburn. Studies from 2010 and 2015 confirm this as well.

Starting off the year with a positive mindset is something I usually try to do, but we’ve lived through four years with the felon in charge before, and those years weren’t good for many of us. Hatch Act violations, cronyism, cabinet corruption, stacking the Supreme Court, rolling back worker regulations . . . The list of offenses goes on and on, and with recent cabinet appointments in the news—it’s hard to stay positive. The country I know and love, the people I know and love, are at risk, and only certain folks seem to realize this.

That fact saddens me. That we’ve come to the point where party matters more than policies, where people care far more for themselves than for others, where ordinary citizens can’t see—or refuse to see—that one man and his followers care only for those who look like him.

Yes, I sense that the sigh is going to be a more common response from me as we move through this year, but I’m going to try and follow that sigh up with more positive change. Once again, I will be focusing on actions, not words, for the new year. So I encourage you to make a list of ways you can spark positivity—at your workplace, in your school district, in your community, at home. Wherever you feel comfortable starting, start there. And hopefully together, we can make a difference.

Be well.

Image of 2025 by Annette Meyer from Pixabay.com.