Hi ,
As we're already in February
it feels a bit late to say Happy New Year, but as this is my first newsletter of the year, I'll say it anyway.
Happy New Year !
How was January for you?
This last week on social media has been pretty amusing
seeing the many memes and comments from people who felt like January was never-ending.
Did you hit the ground running fueled by your new year's resolutions and intentions? Or did you have a much slower transition from 2017 to 2018?
I had a really slow start to the year, which is partly why you're only hearing from me now.
A week into January I was feeling like such a failure. I hadn't
done anything "productive" despite setting several intentions for the year ahead. I mentioned how unproductive I was feeling to my cousin and she responded, "Leanne, we're only 6 days in!". She was right. I'd been swallowed up in the #newyearnewme hype despite not being ready for it. I mean, I'd reflected on 2017 and I'd set my intentions for 2018, but I still didn't feel ready to get started.
So prompted by my cousin, I gave myself
permission to take the time I needed to get started with the new year and to find my flow at my own pace. As soon as I did, I began to receive emails and messages from other women saying similar things; that they too felt like the new year had started without them and that they felt this need to start slowly.
But this was of course contrary to most of the messages I was being bombarded with on social media. So I told myself to ignore what everyone
else "out there" was saying and doing and instead to tune into what I felt I needed. And you know what, once I did that, despite starting slowly in the first couple of weeks, I still managed to accomplish a goal I'd set myself for the 31st January, 2 days ahead of schedule!
So if you've been giving yourself a hard time for starting the year slowly, know that you're not alone.
Life is not a race and as I always say,
there's no rule book for how to do this thing we call life, so trust your instincts and do what feels right for you. But at the same time, be sure to look at what's causing those feelings.
For me, it was a lack of clarity. For you it could be fear or that your intentions are unrealistic for where you're currently at in life and therefore feel too overwhelmed to get started.
As always, I recommend journaling as
a powerful tool for exploring your thoughts, feelings and challenges and below are a few articles that can help you get (re)started with a journal practice.
