19 things I’ve loved about January

I can get scared of being sad through Winter.

So I pack my days with lovely things and I may have just squeezed the most joy out of January EVER.

I started this blog thinking I’d get 5, maybe 10 things, it became 19.

1.Starting the year super slow and a gentle biz warm up with my biz besties

2.Putting the fire on, in one room of our freezing home, and everyone gathering there as it’s the warmest place to be… dance workouts, homework, laundry, music, teens on phones, films… all in one place. The best.

3.Walking in ice, snow, wind, slush, sleet, horizontal rain, clear white light, sunny blue skies on various fells with my beloved

4.Celebrating Burns Night with our neighbours, haggis, neeps, tatties and poetry!

5.Mocktails and intention setting evening with teen mentoring group

6.Hilariously competitive Task Master games night with our boardgames loving besties

7.Booking ahead to stay with friends we’ve not seen since before covid, and knowing we’ve got lush weekends to come

8.Booking ahead for summer festival, imagining dancing in sun-baked fields

9.Diving into deeply satisfying work with clients, including kicking off 3 new in-house change makers programmes

10.Finishing with 4 1-1 coaching clients, poignant goodbyes and in awe of their transformation and progress

11.Dancing at Indigo Monday event with Tamu Thomas

12.Hosting brilliant women in my change makers groups and with Aspiring Women, Found&Flourish and Everywoman

13.Volunteer induction evening with Anti Racism Cumbria and tingly with excitement to join this movement

14.The Traitors US with Alan Cummings nailing the Scottish accoutrements and Sara Barron and Geoff Lloyd pristine commentary on their Laters Traitors pod

15.Finishing off This Here Flesh by Arthur Cole Riley and starting God Is Not a White Man by Chine Macdonald with my book group

16.Lazy and delicious falafel lunch with my lil sis in London

17.Moving my body everyday with a 30 days of yoga practice (I’m only on day 13 but kinda happy it’s not over yet)

18.Windermere retreat with Cat Blyth to mark the last day of the month and we’ll be in deep winter nourishment mode

19.Lighting a candle at dinner each night

These are the days tho right? We get to be present in our lives and be intentional about creating more of what we love.

Yes even amidst all the challenge, adversity, pain, austerity, cumulative exhaustion and general s**tshow that's our current society embedded in patriarchal ableist white supremacist extractive capitalism.... I want more presence, fun, connection, nature, movement in 2023 and my January was filled with joy.

and now over to you:

➡️What did you love about your January? Did you squeeze all the joy?

➡️What do you want to put in place to create more of what you want in your life?

Come on February we’re ready for ya!

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