An introduction to The January Book, part 1
2017. Um, wow.
2017 started with a weekend away in which Dave and I dreamed about the year ahead. I was heavily pregnant and I was decompressing from an amazingly busy work year in which my (swollen) feet had hardly touched the ground. I was so ready for some space and time to think. We went away to Elmley for the weekend to rest and talk and work through what we call our January Book, a notebook in which we review last year and plan for next. We talked about 2016- the wins, the painful spots, the lessons learned. And then we talked about how we wanted our life to feel in the coming year. That process was the groundwork for some incredible stuff.
2017 was the year we welcomed Auden into our family and three became four.
It was the year I discovered the surprise furnace of power inside me. The year I had a calm, back-to-back home birth despite believing I “couldn’t cope with pain”. 2017 was the year I understood finally, just how powerful our self-beliefs are, the power of repeated mantra’s and positive thinking. (So, so powerful, guys. Read more about how I prepared for birth here and here and read my home birth story here.)
It was the year I allowed my word for the year, “Nourish”, to whisper it’s wisdom everything I did. I asked for help. I stayed in bed with my baby for the first 6 weeks of his life. We were fed by my friends. I flexed my “no”. I let tears flow. I chose rest, ate nourishing food and found time for creativity when I needed it.
This was also the year of a whoooole lot of figuring out. It was the year the book “Playing Big” changed my life. I gave up on finding my One True Calling In This One God Damned Life and just started anyway. I did a lot of ‘inner work’, processing and self-coaching. I learned about being “enough”. That kindness to myself beats beating myself up. That ease is as important as hustle in business.
I had no idea if I would be able to continue to work with my baby, but 2017 was the year I forged a new way of working that enabled me to be with or close to Auden and still do the work I love doing. I was simply not willing to accept that I couldn’t work and also be with and continue to breastfeed my baby.
2017 was the year that gifted us with a surprise dream-house move right at the end of the year. Whoa!
Heartbreak and sadness have popped up too; financial difficulties, postpartum wobbliness, the heartbreak that can come in navigating becoming a mother of two, some landlord issues with our old house, taking Frankie out of our beloved kindergarten, a horrible burglary, moving house chaos, missing my mum. But thanks to my gratitude practice, the overwhelming feeling I have about 2017 is joy and deep thankfulness. My life feels incredibly full and love-filled, despite the blips.
What a year!
Throughout it all, we had our January Book dreamings and word for the year softly humming around us, our goals and intentions acting as an undercurrent to it all. We wanted our marriage and relationship with Frankie to feel close and connected, and we did it, mostly successfully(!). We stopped eating meat and dairy as a result of one of our health intentions and took steps to get more sleep too. I could go on and on about all the little ways that the January Book has influenced our year but this post is long enough!
In fact, this introduction to the January Book ended up being so long that I decided to split it up so my next blog post, which will be published later, Hurray!
