A gentle new year

MINDFUL MOMENTS # 142

Welcome to the little space that exists between Christmas and New Year’s. It feels akin to a corridor, laid out on all sides by plates of leftover foods, board games and jumbled days of the week. If you are working, I applaud you.

Many people I speak to are not keen on a big New Year’s Eve. Perhaps we are wearied by Christmas festivities, or perhaps it feels too heavy with the weight of expectation. Do you feel a certain pressure at this time of year - either the pressure to have big New Year’s Eve, or the pressure of expectation for the coming year itself? Or perhaps both?

Historically, I was raised on a diet of London’s Science and Natural History Museums on New Year’s Day; I think it was a combination of the free parking on Bank Holidays and the idea of kick-starting the new year with curiosity and education.

I think we have to find that balance between this gleaming opportunity for intention-setting and putting too much pressure on ourselves to achieve that thing. Similar to that formula for finding our flow state in creativity, we have to find the sweet spot; the Goldilocks spot between too easy and too hard.

One of the most helpful mottos I stand by is that what you do now will be reflected back to you in six months’ time. To give a crude example, if you were to run every day starting now, you’d be a pretty strong runner six months down the line (but also potentially injured, so let’s come back to the idea of finding balance).

You are - as indeed we all are - a product of your environment. You are the product of your daily habits, movements, rituals, thoughts, patterns and the people you surround yourself with.

I spoke about this many moons ago in newsletter number 98, but we may have had some new readers since then, so I’ll recap the concept for the benefit of us all. There is a principle in psychiatry called nidotherapy which recognises the need to harmonise the patient with the environment, rather than it being the other way round. ‘Nido’ means ‘nest’, alluding to the nest we build for ourselves. Interestingly, I wrote that newsletter in January 2023. I suppose then, as now, I keenly felt its importance around the new year.

When I think about the things I want to “achieve” this year (I use the word reluctantly, for fear of evoking our capitalist tendencies towards equating productivity with worth…), I recognise that I have the best chance of success if I make small alterations to my every day environment. This may be as much through my physical space - an inviting desk; the food in the cupboards and the running shoes near the door - as it is through the mental space: a dedicated space to sit in daily stillness or meditation; a little altar for affirmation cards and candles.

Mindful moment: What changes to your environment could you make today that would benefit yourself six months from now? What approach might work best for you? Where are you in the Goldilocks triptych in terms of the pressure you are putting on yourself as we enter a new year? Can you be gentle with yourself in these last few remaining days of 2023 as you reflect on the person you’ve become and all the things we can be grateful for this year?

YOGA

Mindful Movement with Laura

Join us every Saturday from 11am-12.15 at the Cornerstone Community Centre in Hove for an all-levels vinyasa yoga flow class, meditation and mindfulness (mats provided or bring your own). £6 per class or £24 for 5.

Upcoming classes:

January 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th

REFLECT

“We'll drink a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne

And surely you will buy your cup
And surely I'll buy mine!”

Mindful moment: Our world needs more cups of kindness. Is there anything better we can do than to raise a cup of kindness as we enter the new year? Remember that this kindness extends to those we don’t know; to our earth - its animals and climate - and to yourself.

Have we met?

Welcome to the Community.

I'm Laura, a yoga teacher and NHS doctor. With this weekly newsletter I aim to help you incorporate mindful moments into your week. I want you to feel inspired, empowered and creative. I promise to always be authentic; to only include content that speaks to me and which, therefore, I hope will do the same for you.

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Thanks for being here. Happy New Year!

Laura x