Nourish Yourself!

Happy New Year, gorgeous friend!!

We have arrived! 2023! I hope the first two days of the new year have felt good. There is always so much anticipation about embarking on a fresh start, that it can feel like a lot of pressure once the ball has dropped and we wake up with our intentions burning brightly. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the cleanse of letting go of the past and beginning again, but I also know there have been times that 36 hours into the New Year I am already feeling overwhelmed by the height of the bar I set!

And then there’s biology. You know, the part of our nature that is still calling deeply for us to hunker down and hibernate. Our DNA is powerful and it can really create a conflict with our newly set goals and intentions. I thought a lot about this as I was wrapping up 2022… what might it look like if I was able to honor BOTH my desire to recharge AND my need to burrow in and get cozy!

It was a few days before the ball drop that I ran across a post on Instagram that resonated sooo deeply, I read it three times and then reposted it immediately. It came from @sheleanaaiyana and she opened by saying,

“It always feels strange to me to focus on goal setting and action taking on Jan 1, which is the dead of winter where I live. The medicine of winter is inward and deeply introspective. A time to rest, collect ourselves, heal, nourish and recharge.”

YES!! This is exactly how I was feeling! She continues by wondering if all the rushing around to do and be “better” in the new year is a distraction from the true beauty and growth of turning inward and getting quiet, listening and allowing for slow rebirth. Oh my… yes!! I think I can say I have gotten lost in that race myself. Setting big goals with boxes to check and habits to track. It is easy to find distraction from myself when I am fixated on doing, doing, doing.

And so I sat back as the New Year approached and got quiet. I thought of what I really needed from a reset and recharge that would also allow me to slllloooooowww down in the way I feel the winter calling me to do. I landed on the idea of nourishing myself. This can look like a million different actions and non-actions. It can be in clean eating and meal prepping, it can be in moving my body with a kick ass workout or power yoga… but it can also look like taking a nap or canceling plans when I need rest. It can look like drinking more water… or a luxurious massage, or it can be saying no, setting limits and declining overwhelm. I have fallen in love with the concept of nourishing myself because it can be all the action and drive to launch forward AND softly tuck in and be cozy. It is ALL the things I am longing for!!

So, I set a beautiful intention that invites ALL of it and feels like the perfect declaration for the new year.

My intention for 2023 is to lovingly nourish myself with joy and ease!

That, my brave friend, is the invitation I extend to you in this week’s Mindful Mini… Nourish yourself! Whether you set a goal or intention for 2023, or not, find ways to nourish yourself as part of honoring where you are in this moment and where you are striving to go. I wrote down a list of all the things I could think of that would nourish me… mind, body, soul, spirit and heart. It is a really LONG list… which means I have endless opportunities to live my intention every day! I am already crushing it. January 1st looked like snuggles on the couch, and reading. January 2nd was packed with cooking our favorite winter soups, meal prepping, closet cleaning and mapping out the calendar for the week. Both days included lots of water! My heart was full, my mind was centered and my soul was wrapped up and cozy. Take this time to set an intention to nourish yourself in all the ways you so deserve… because you are sooo worth it!

Yours in heart,

Kelly Lynn Driscoll