Editor’s Welcome: The January/February issue of IMAGE Magazine

By Holly O'Neill
29th Dec 2018

Editor’s Welcome: The January/February issue of IMAGE Magazine

The joy of January

As the calendar clicks over to a fresh new year, we’re doing things a little differently here at IMAGE. Like countless others, we are making a pledge. But not a pledge to change – simply a promise to be better… to ourselves. When I picture that calendar clicking over, I can’t help visualising Bill Murray’s alarm clock in Groundhog Day – you know the one that played Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on an insanity-inducing loop? It made a very satisfying “thunk”.

And as satisfying as the idea is to start afresh with a brand new year stretching out ahead, many of us seem to harbour an anxiety that if we’re not making drastic improvements (all those “new year, new you” ads shouting at us), we are somehow stuck in a Groundhog Day loop.As Judy Garland once said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” As a woman, known to her family as Frances Ethel Gumm, she probably knew a thing or two about the pressure involved in presenting one’s face to the world while seeing something quite different in the mirror.But what does it take to be a first-rate version of ourselves? Not to be a whole “new you” but to simply be a more confident, more at-ease-with-yourself you? I agree with yogi Sinead Duffy’s view that January is possibly the worst time of year for goal setting (page 83). When the days are dark and short, we’re at our lowest ebb. This is not the time to be eating raw kale or denying yourself comfort.

I think the best thing you can do is take time for yourself – whether to paint in Dunmore East, do the Trikonasana on a Portuguese beach or go on little solo adventures during your lunch break. It might just be the best resolution you’ll ever make (and actually follow through on). I think the sweet spot is found in changing by degrees. Yes, we want to stay committed to our big picture goals and raise our voices to try to change injustices we see around us, as Emily Westbrook is doing (page 68), but there is no need to beat yourself up in the process.

As a magazine, we are looking to the year ahead with excitement, and some jitters, as we shake things up a bit. We aim to remain the same IMAGE that over the last 43 years you’ve come to respect and trust, but with a refreshed attitude and a renewed commitment to offer our readers the most thought-provoking, relevant and engaging features. We’ve made a few (small) changes in this first issue of the year that we plan to build on, and we’d love to hear from you. Love it? Hate it? Let us know… [email protected].

For now, I hope you steal ten minutes to yourself with cup of coffee or a glass of wine (god forbid) and enjoy this January/February issue.