I’m back at my desk for my first day of work for 2019

(This is only the second time my laptop has been switched on in over two weeks!)

My goals for today are simple:

• Introduce myself to my new day planner
• Make some space in my inbox and do some admin
• Do some gentle Jan + 2019 intention setting
• Work on some book edits for my forthcoming book
• Drink the coffee
• Work with joy

 

This time last year I was settling in home after a wonderful family holiday in Byron Bay, making big plans for work and life, while thinking I was 7 weeks pregnant (several weeks later, we discovered I had a blighted ovum—a fancy name for a very common type of miscarriage… you can read more about that story here).

I had mapped out at least the first six months of the year; for my biz, that looked like live group programs, workshops, updating two of my courses, working with my clients, working on my next book and of course, leaving space (in heart and mind and schedule) for aligned opportunities drop in.

For life, it looked like planning to slow down and take maternity leave from the middle of the year, and then welcoming a little life in the spring.

But life had other plans and I have to say, the timing of this new plan has been even better.

This time this year, I’m also settling in home after a wonderful family holiday in Byron Bay, but that’s where the similarities end.

The difference is that this January feels incredibly different to every other January that’s ever come before it, because I’m now over 35 weeks pregnant, and I haven’t mapped anything out. (Which, if you know me, you’ll know is not like me at all!)

I’m not making plans or setting goals (but I am setting gentle intentions and holding a vision of my future, more on this below); because I have no idea what’s next; because the best I can do is be as present as possible, as often as possible (also: take naps).

I’m now nearly finished my next book (hopefully, a few more days of work will see me completing some final edits), and I’m seeing a few clients this week, and then?

Then I shift gears; writing my birth preferences, practising my hypnobirthing tools (even more, I should say), packing my hospital bag (eep! Exciting!), washing the baby’s clothes (more exciting!), getting the baby’s car seat installed… and all the while, trusting 2019, trusting myself, and trusting this new path.

Also: taking more naps.

While none of us can know what this new year brings, we can trust in our own potential, and the possibilities that brings.

So while I don’t have solid plans or goals, and while this January looks and feels so very different to what I’m used to, I’ll be setting gentle intentions for how I want to feel, and what I hope to experience this year.

 

Here are a few ways you can do this too:

• While looking ahead, take the pressure off yourself. Stay in your flow, be gentle with yourself, trust in the spaces in between, and where you stand right now.
• Make space (and I’m not just saying this as I’ve been watching Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up on Netflix!). Clear out, tidy up, let go… you deserve what’s rushing in to fill the space.
• Envision what you wish to feel and experience. Let your subconscious mind see the positive versions that are so very possible, so you can start to feel joy at moving forward.
• Be gentle with yourself. No ‘new year, new you’ BS… but rather, a time to get clear on how you want to feel, how you want to be, what you want to do, and what you can let go of, knowing you’re enough exactly as you are right now.
• Have fun with it all. This sounds suspiciously like the first point I made; let the start of something new (e.g. this year) feel light. Have fun with your goals, intentions, plans and dreams. And always, leave room for something even better.

 

The Japanese edition of You Are Enough

I came home from holiday to find two copies of the (beautiful!!!) Japanese edition of You Are Enough, and if I wasn’t 35 weeks pregnant, I would’ve been doing cartwheels in our hallway!

 

 

Love,