This Month

Starting fresh: The power of a social reset

By honoring your emotions, remembering why your social reset is important, recognizing your strengths, and reflecting on your growth, temporary social resets can be a powerful thing.

So, how do you make the most of social resets?

Honor Your Emotions

The experience of being the new kid is more than the environmental changes that you navigate. Emotional states such as excitement, nervousness, anger, or sadness are common when processing a social reset. The truth is: whatever emotions that come up are natural, don’t need to be justified, and make you human.

Give yourself patience, grace, and self-compassion. Even the best hockey players had to start as a rookie on the team, welcoming a new pet to your family required new routines and responsibilities, and making a best friend meant that someone had to have the courage to say, “hi.”

We all have to begin new chapters somewhere.

Remember Your “Why”

Did you move to a new neighborhood? Are you starting an activity or sport? Were you looking for a fresh start? Change doesn’t occur for no reason. Think about why you or your family decided that a social reset was important.

Keeping the bigger picture in mind can help us act in ways that align with our “why,” but how can we do this when we are feeling so many emotions and adjusting to change?

• Identify your “why.” Make intentional time to think and reflect about why you are entering a new environment and what you hope to accomplish from your social reset.
• Create self-affirmations. New environments can be overwhelming, and sometimes this can lead to negative thoughts like, “I cannot do this,” or “I don’t want to embarrass myself.” By challenging these thoughts with self-affirmations, we can create a more positive internal dialogue. For example: “I deserve to be patient with myself,” or “I’m doing the best that I can.”
• Write notes for your future self. Leaving notes in your workbooks, bedroom, backpack, or pocket can act as reminders of your “why.” For example: “It is my dream to be a nurse one day,” or “I deserve friends who love and support me.”

Recognize Your Strengths

We all have traits and skills that make us who we are. Maybe you find creative writing enjoyable, have a supportive family, can make people laugh, or are athletically gifted. These strengths can be helpful in temporary social resets by setting you up for success.

Your strengths are your superpowers. Leaning into your superpowers can make social resets more exciting, enjoyable, and rewarding. By highlighting your strengths, you also get to show those around you who you truly are and what you have to offer.

When you can identify your strengths, they can help you create self-affirmations and behave in ways that align with your “why.” Your superpowers help you to embrace being the new kid and allow you to make the most of your social reset. 

Reflect on Your Progress 

We all start somewhere, and reflecting on where we began can highlight our strengths, the progress we’ve made, and our potential to keep going.

Setting small, attainable goals allows you to truly see how far you’ve come by creating a tangible way to reflect on your progress. Whether you wish to speak to one new person, introduce yourself to your new coach, or simply show up, no goal is too small. Each one completed is worth celebrating because every step forward is important to make the most out of being the new kid.

As you complete your goals, you are offered space to celebrate yourself and your strengths with your loved ones. Don’t forget to reflect on how far you’ve come. These moments can even be a great excuse to celebrate with an extra scoop of ice cream!

As you enter this new chapter, remember that adjusting to social resets are temporary experiences and happen for a reason, so hold onto your “why” tightly. Whatever emotions that come up are okay; in fact, they make you human. Don’t forget to reflect on your progress and celebrate your wins. You deserve to be offered patience, kindness, grace, and celebrations throughout the journey of being the “new kid.”

Priscilla is a Registered Psychologist and supervises Jessica as she completes their counselling internship at Innerlogue Therapy & Psychology. Innerlogue Therapy & Psychology has two locations in Calgary – Kensington and Midnapore.