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22 tips for 2022: To deepen relationships, start by showing up for yourself

Clare Marie Schneider/NPR

Are you craving deeper relationships and more connection with friends and loved ones? Start by getting to know yourself better by running a time audit.

You can get started by tracking how you spend every 30 minutes in one day: Ask yourself, "How did I spend the first 30 minutes I was up in the morning? What did I do for the next 30 minutes?" Rachel Wilkerson Miller, author of The Art of Showing Up, recommends.

"If you go through a whole day like that, you start to realize how much time and energy you're spending doing things other people want you to do, and not really for yourself," she says.

Auditing how you spend your time — along with your money and energy — will help you figure out your values and make changes so that you're spending more on the people and activities you care about most.

But take your time, Miller recommends. "Sit with what you're learning, because if you try to jump in and make changes, it's really overwhelming."


Here's more on how to show up for yourself.

22 tips for 2022 is edited and curated by Dalia Mortada, Arielle Retting, Janet W. Lee, Beck Harlan, Beth Donovan and Meghan Keane. This tip comes from a Life Kit story illustrated by Claire Marie Schneider, hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and produced by Andee Tagle.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Shereen Marisol Meraji is the co-host and senior producer of NPR's Code Switch podcast. She didn't grow up listening to public radio in the back seat of her parent's car. She grew up in a Puerto Rican and Iranian home where no one spoke in hushed tones, and where the rhythms and cadences of life inspired her story pitches and storytelling style. She's an award-winning journalist and founding member of the pre-eminent podcast about race and identity in America, NPR's Code Switch. When she's not telling stories that help us better understand the people we share this planet with, she's dancing salsa, baking brownies or kicking around a soccer ball.