Though this holiday season was not as spirited, at least for me, as in year’s past, it still seems like I’m struggling to get excited and energized for the new year, and I know I’m not alone.

I think I’m feeling a technology and information overload. Combined with this cold and snow and ice we were expected to get this weekend, I’m feeling a deep need to hibernate in quiet.

I wonder if this is a comfort need, because let’s face it, we’ve all been under some intense stress of late. No matter which side of the coin you are on, the election cycle this time around has been exhausting, and there are still a lot of unknowns coming.

I don’t get down into the political weeds if I can help it, and I also don’t do well with unknowns. I am a planner and woman of action and I don’t do well when I am unsure of the future. So I am feeling a need to spend a lot of my free time snuggled under blankets next to the hubs, watching classic movies on TCM and trying not to think about the world right now.

There is so much constant information that I have trouble concentrating on just one thing. Maybe this is a good moment to think of things we can do to help us feel better, more grounded and more connected to each other.

Put the cell phone down for a bit. Go to the local coffee shop and visit, even if it’s with strangers. Hey, we southerners are good at being willing and able to talk to anyone, and we shouldn’t let that talent get away from us. Say hello, strike up a conversation. And you don’t have to get a high-end coffee, just a small regular will do.

Bundle up and go outside for a short walk to get a little connected with nature. We humans are of this earth, and we need to touch the ground and the trees once in a while to remember who we are.

It’s so easy to let life get the best of us. There is so much information coming at us all the time through our phones and our computers and we seem less and less able to shut them off, put them down for even a little while, just to breathe. I am as guilty as anyone. I’ll put my phone down, determined to leave it alone for half an hour, and within 5 minutes I’m picking it up, without even realizing I’m doing it.

I’m starting to think of ways that I can physically move away from my phone, just to force myself to take a break. Leaving it in the bedroom when I’m in the den. Not taking it into the kitchen with me while I cook.

I do have a confession to make, one that my husband gets a kick out of sharing: I sleep with my phone under my pillow so I can hear the scanner.

But my job is covering breaking news, and if you know, you know — a lot of fires happen overnight. Those live videos don’t get done if I’m in bed asleep, even if you can’t always hear them very well.

But I don’t actually check my phone during the night unless I hear a call that I need to get to, and only then to I check in to see what information I can gather as I’m getting up and on the road.

It’s a mixed blessing. I feel like I’m doing my job, making sure information is shared in a timely manner, but I know I still need breaks, and that won’t necessarily get me one.

I’m trying, though. I think we all need to try. To step away from the steady flow of information, some factual, some opinion, and some just rumor and assumption, and check in with the physical world of other people and the earth.

Maybe 2025 can be the year of reconnecting, instead of carrying on with the constant flow of information through technology.

I know my phone all too well. I think it’s time to get to know my neighbors and my neighborhood again.

Elisabeth Strillacci covers crime, courts, Spencer, East Spencer and Kannapolis for the Salisbury Post.