Another Year, Another To-do List

As January unfurls slowly, I am reminded of the blog post I published on the same day last year. And in a bid not to lose content when the old website expires, and because it is still relevant, I have copied and pasted most of it here.

“It’s all About Balance — 6th January 2022

It’s been a month since my last post and I have to admit that I haven’t really made much progress on the creative front. Though the Christmas break has proved to be a great respite from the demands of working during a pandemic, I don’t feel as bouncy as I usually do post New Year’s Day. The trepidation of what the new year will bring may be contributing to this, but it feels like much more than that. I am sure I am not alone in finding it a challenge to get going again. There’s something about winter that calls for a much slower pace once the year end has permitted it, but this year I simply don’t feel like I have rested quite enough. I am definitely not ready to pick up the pace again — yet.

I read something that resonated like the deep sound vibrations of a rather large gong this week. It was one of those ‘New Year’ self-help posts that littered newsfeeds in the first days of 2022 — except this message was different. In place of the ‘become a better you’ focus, this post was acknowledging that following another challenging year that the last thing we need right now is to introduce new ones. In fact this could prove counterproductive and demotivate us further. Now the premise of this post is to get us to download a free mindfulness app, which might well appeal to many right now and I don’t think would be a bad idea under the circumstances, but for me it was the confirmation I needed permission to’ just be’ for a little while longer.

And it struck me how fond we are of placing expecations on ourselves that we wouldn’t impress on anyone else. And depsite shunning the general social media messages that in my view peddle an ‘acceptable’ yet often unattainable lifestyle, I wonder how much of this ‘need to be always working towards something’ is perpetuated by it. And so, although there are things that I would like to change about my life this year, I don’t feel this is exclusively something that needs to happen right now, or even in the immediate future. That said, it is important not to feel ‘stuck’ in one place. With this renewed perspective I feel 2022 might be all about rebalancing our lives and that the changes we make will link in with this.

But for now, whilst the equilbrium is restoring itself I am taking all the time I need, because quite frankly that would be the advice I would give to others. This January is a month to be gently inspired, not pushing to try new things, an opportunity to ‘meet ourselves exactly where we are,’ to continue the ‘wintering’ theme until our winter is over and surrender to our intuition enjoying more moments of calm. The world has changed, but so have we. We need to allow ourselves time to accept and adapt to these changes and take what we need to from them, then discard the rest and move on. I am excited to see how things will unfold as the year progresses.”

In many ways, nothing much has changed since then, certainly managing Long Covid since the spring and the adjustments that required added an extra barrier to picking up the pace again. Though we may feel we are further on with managing the Covid situation, there have been other challenges to face since then and it can all feel a bit heavy right now.

I’m taking my cue from Learning Herbs and viewing the winter ‘season of stillness’ as a time for ‘generative rest and reflection.’ For cosy cuppas with friends and ‘deep connection’ with nature.

‘Like you, just underneath the surface the plants are storing up their energy to blossom brilliantly in the spring.’

Go easy on that to-do list.

DU