Awakening From Winter & Curated Content #11 January 2024
A monthly email for paid subscribers with curated reads, videos, podcasts and other content which have interested or inspired me this month.
Hey Friends,
You made it - January ends today!
It is, indeed, a long dark month - at least here in Ireland. Personally, I don’t feel the need to run at the year in January. It feels premature, out of tune with the reality of life, to move at speed in the depths of winter. For me, January is about laying foundations behind the scenes. I prefer to spend the time tending to life and the business to see what gaps need to be filled or new foundations built to set myself up for growth during the rest of year. This way, I feel more organised and solid in myself as life and work naturally accelerates as we enter February.
I set out to do the 30 day challenge with Yoga with Adriene and managed 15 days out of 30 which I have to admit I thought was a result. That is 10 more days of practicing yoga than I managed in December, a month in which my routine often falls apart. So, the real win was getting back into routine, I care less about whether I practiced every day or not. Eight years ago, I probably would have completed the 30 day challenge and then fallen off the wagon for the rest of year as work and travel became busier. Today, success is consistency over longer periods. I feel this way about most aspects of my life. It is less intense in terms of goal setting but typically more fruitful in terms of outcomes and how connected I feel to myself.
In contrast, I have found the quantity of memes and posts in January on ‘productivity’ exhausting. You are a human being, not a machine. You have dreams and aspirations and deserve an experience of living beyond what is simply productive. Forget about urgency culture which asks how can I be more productive and ask yourself, what would I like to do with this year or the rest of my life? How would I like life to feel? Becoming more purpose-led is always a shift towards longer timelines. Less urgency culture, more intentionality.
This week there has been a subtle shift in energy. I always feel something inside me opens up on the 1st February. Light reemerges and I am ready to be more out to the world. If you, too, have been exhausted listening to posts on productivity and goals in January but perhaps are starting to feel the inner stirrings of new life and things trying to emerge - I am here for you! After the paywall, I have curated some reads and podcasts for inspiration, habits and big life plans starting with a reminder from one of my favourite teachers Nadia Bolz-Weber who proclaimed:
‘Yearly reminder: there is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love’.
Amen to that.
Until next month,
Fiona x
P.S. For those interested you can watch a short intro to my speaking work and the themes of my keynotes here. Full details on my website: Fiona English - Speaking
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