Reflections on the New Year

I love the freshness of a new year… looking at my wall planner, still with so much lovely blank potential.

I intend to keep quite a bit of blank on that wall planner this year. The intense yoyo effect of the lockdown followed by catch-up busyness in 2021 has reminded me to go mindfully into scheduling, and to reflect on who and what I’d like to experience, commit to and commune with this year.

My list of intentions and dreams is LONG - but I know I can’t do it all. I’m coming to terms with that, and it’s both a relief and a disappointment.

And, of course, scheduling with care is a work in progress! It’s so easy to have all these sensible ideas about not stuffing too much in, and then get excited (or panic) and overdo it later down the line. But this an intention I’m starting 2022 with!

What I’m remembering as I hold my priorities and practices and commit to them (or recommit), they need to be danced with rather than set in stone.

Not everything can always be at the top of my list. I am reflecting on how to best to show up for what really matters in a more grounded and realistic way. Sexy!

Community, Curiosity and Commitment have emerged as ‘words’ for 2022.

I don’t think I’ve ever wholeheartedly set a ‘word of the year’ but these three keep coming up so I’m honouring them as my guides.

Without going into too much detail:

Community looks like nurturing my relationships, finding more of my peeps in the West Country and local area, showing up for sisterhood, deepening connections with business peers and communities, exploring how I can support.

Curiosity feels like playing with my art and personal photography practice, embarking on new adventures and explorations in nature, expanding my bubble and comfort zone professionally and creatively, reading more books books books!, and living and learning with the deeper questions that emerge along the way.

Commitment is to my business goals, to taking good care of my finances, to saving, to my hopes and dreams for this work, and to old-age me, to my loved ones and future ones. Commitment too, is to honouring my true capacity, and asking for help.

Despite all of this apparent clarity, I started out 2022 in a fog.

I felt grateful that I could make out a few steps on the path ahead, but I couldn’t see too far.

The start of a new calendar year can be such an intensifier of whatever emotion we’re experiencing, and I’m very familiar with that predictable annual pressure! It hasn’t felt quite so existential for a while though.

I took one step at a time and tried not to rush the answers. Journaling helps me a LOT and revealed some sign posts, as did talking to loved ones, and with my mentors.

And now here we are, halfway through January and I’m feeling a lot brighter and able to visualise and flow with the next steps for now.

Finding myself in the unknown and moving through that process in a gentle way helped me grasp some of what was going inside for me, and revealed a sort of inner compass to carry for now.

Whatever kind of January you’ve had so far, I hope you’re doing okay, whether your vision is clear and your year is excitedly mapped out in anticipation, or whether you’re finding yourself in a foggier place than you’d perhaps like.

Let’s be patient with ourselves in all of these times, and know that things will get clearer again.

Wherever we’re currently at, this too is part of the natural cycle of things, and part of the result of what we’ve been going through.

Let’s keep listening to ourselves and others. Keep reflecting. Keep learning. What we live through now, becomes the fuel and foundations for what is next, and that’s not a process we can rush to completion.

With love x