Happy New Year
I’m sure by now you’ve heard all the soundbites of what a terrible year it’s been. It has indeed been a year like no other. But I’d like the focus of this last newsletter of 2020 to be on how we will prepare ourselves for life in 2021.
This new year most of us might want our old lives to return rather than implementing new year resolutions & changes.
The reality is life will not be the same for some time to come. The promise of the vaccine being rolled out far and wide gives us a hook to hang our hope & carry us safely into Spring/Summer when the sun will again shine upon us, businesses will all be open & we can hug each other again!
What is inevitable, is that things will change, as change is the only certainty in life. And we cannot control what that change will be, but we can control our responses to these changes.
Winter is always considered a time to restore replenish set ‘your house in order’. So how can we set our internal house in order ... the house of ourselves ... our minds and our bodies?
How can we be the positive change we so want to see in such an uncertain world? Rick Hanson argues that people have three basic needs—safety, satisfaction, and connection. We meet those needs in four ways: recognizing the truth, building our resources, regulating thoughts and feelings, and relating to others and the world.
We can build our resources & resilience in the small day to day rituals we do for ourselves. Asking ourselves “what do I really need right now?” And attending to those needs with great care and kindness. When we attend to ourselves and build up our own self resilience by treating ourselves with care we become more robust to take on the challenges that we cannot do anything about. By nurturing ourselves we can then reach out and connect to our community.
Maybe New Year will bring an opportunity to help out somewhere or someone in some way. Shopping for a neighbour, walk their dog, cooking them a meal. Practising random acts of kindness letting other people go in front of you in the supermarket queue, being more courteous whilst driving, giving someone else the biggest slice of cake!! All these small little acts collectively build up to a stronger more connected community. It’s a win-win you feel good for doing something and the person feels good for receiving the help, & everyone feels more connected!
If you look for the good you will see that the tide is turning, there is less fake news and the purveyor of hate & fear across the pond is quietening & will soon be gone, racial hatred is starting to be exposed more & shamed.
Our planet is in dire need of healing and restoration and at the moment you could think the world is in absolute chaos, but just as when I go walking in the woods, I can see the snowdrops and daffodils forging their way out of the frozen ground .... hope is there if you look for it!
A good uplifting read is Ruby Wax’s ‘And now for the good news’ which is full of the amazing things around the globe that people are doing for the greater good, like the new wave of conscious capitalism & philanthropy in businesses.
So attend to yourselves, meet your own needs, practice random acts of kindness & hug those you can, hug yourself & smile from deep inside yourself (even imagining a smile inside - shifts your brain chemistry & of those around you) the future is coming and it brings hope.
Wishing you all a very happy New Year in all the many many small ways through self care, self kindness & compassion ️
Together we’ve got this x
And here are the links again to the FREE chair class and mindful movement practice:
Pilates with a chair
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/kApmH1ca0Uk4Mltwx5rBcEIEi0RdXKVTt66nKZM7lRVHrHQR8rLRv950nAhUfE1o.cTmYdF6_coSaT8qC
Passcode: RzWv#V1w
Relaxing somatic mindful movement
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/UQ_CK84GXGXIYgCffqyIbwhLNShVcu3_TE1Z7e_hMprkPYnJEI4CRuHvpSf42Slw.T98cGSB18RBXW6MK
Passcode: Raid^V3$
The peace of the wild things
Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
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