January is a month that is hard on everyone.
The holidays are over, it’s still dark outside and yet, everyone expects us to be bubbly, full of good intentions, working hard on new goals we need to reach.
But what if we got it all wrong?
What if we are not supposed to jump into new adventures just yet?
What if January is not the month to make new plans, to start doing new things?
Lots of people set intentions, but leave them at the doorstep after a couple of weeks.
How come?
Where do we go wrong?
Why do we fail?
We are part of nature, but do we look at what nature is doing this time of year?
Do we observe, and learn?
No, we think we are above the laws of nature, and we keep pushing through.
Is it any wonder we feel blue?
Is it abnormal that we feel tired and want to go to bed early?
No!
Nature is still.
Nature rests.
Nature prepares in silence for the new spring.
All is quiet and hibernating.
What if we all try to be gentle to ourselves and ease* through January instead of pushing through?
I understand that most of us can’t just sleep through it and wake up in Springtime.
But what if we tried to do a little less, sleep a little more.
If you have been reading my articles, you know I am all about simplifying.
So let’s revue our lives for a moment.
Look at what is too much right now.
It’s so easy to let your life get full again. Me too, I had a very full, stressful year and now I consciously want to simplify my life again:
Less stuff
Less to do’s
Less appointments
Less hassle
Less pressure
Less complicating life.
I am consciously switching to
More quiet time
More meditations
More being in nature
More sleep
More relaxing time
More drinking water
More health
More exercise.
What if all of our New Year’s resolutions could be, no resolutions at all.
Just easing through wintertime.
Gently preparing for springtime.
I highly recommend:
– Have a gentle evening ritual**l so that you can have a good night sleep.
– Wake up softly and start your day in a relaxing way.***
Away from mails, news, phone messages… just breathe, awaken, take your time before you jump into your day.
– Clear your agenda of all the too much.
Even too much fun activities are too much. Build in peace and quiet. Build in time to just breathe.
– Take care of your body****:
eat more healthily, drink more water, exercise more, …
– Make space in your head*****.
Let go of old battles, worry less, make time to do nothing at all. If you know that more than 90% of what we worried about, never actually happens, then I think we can safely start worrying less. And even if stressful things happen, worrying about them never changed a thing.
I’ll keep it short this week. Nothing new, just some light reading, no heavy thinking required, just a gentle reminder.
Just a permission slip* to ease through January.
Thank you all for reading me, and for supporting me on Medium! If you want unlimited access to all of my articles, and of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member. You’ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!
Katrien
*”Gentle” by Courtney Carver.
**”Night Time: Sweet Dreams, Or Waking Hours?” by Katrien Degraeve.
***”Happy Mornings, Happy Days. Happy Days, Happy Life”. by Katrien Degraeve.
****”Less is Yes!, part 2” by Katrien Degraeve.
*****”Less is Yes!, part 3” by Katrien Degraeve.