Setting a new pace

Welcome 2022!

 How are you feeling about this new year? I have had all the feels already, and we not even a month has passed yet. Enthusiasm, disappointment, frustration, tiredness, compassion, acceptance, contentment.

 So much has happened in the last two years that we are still processing.
 Psychologists call it the "Pandemic Brain":

Credit: @Thepsychologymum
 And it's more serious and unravelled as we can expect.
 
 Therefore, maybe, only maybe, we could consider shifting, changing and adapting our expectations around New Year resolutions?
 
 I have been doing New Year retreats for years and I always used to meet participants with excitement, hope, drive to do what it took to make change happen and last.
 Now, we still hold that desire, but we feel that something is missing, or rather, we are carrying a much bigger and heavier burden with ourselves. Dealing with the unprecedented change and volatility that our brains aren't designed to deal with during the last two years
 
 ps: if you are interested in this topic, here are some resources where I have previously covered change management and our limited capacity to deal with constant change:
 
 VIDEOS
 Coaching Lab:
 - Implementing change
 - Navigating change
 
 ARTICLES:
 Change is here to stay
 
 So if we, in a way, are going against nature and pushing the limits of our natural capacity, maybe it's time we considered doing things in a different way, in a different pace, so we avoid burnout?

 A little reflection I wanted to share with you as I went for a walk earlier this week. Words came to me as a way to capture the stillness, quietness, calmness and soft easiness that the woods were embodying:
 
 Surrounded by beauty
 Surrounded by mud
 Light still shining
 Warming my path
 Reminding me of the seasonal change and fluctuations
 Challenging the productive system we live in that tells us we can’t stop producing, doing, generating
 But when we listen to our body, to nature
 The messages are rather different
 Winter, with its shorter days and cooling temperatures ask us to go within, to incubate, to rest, to go slow and gentle, to replenish
 And those realities can feel strongly opposed, antagonising and brutally difficult to convey
 As we are part of the system
 But we are allowed to dance and sing our own song, our own rhythm, our own pace
 And when we give ourselves the chance to do so
 The universe sighs in relief
 You are now divine child have started to walk the path back home
 To tenderness, to softness, to love, to compassionate care and understanding
 Of giving yourself what you need and offer others a chance to do the same
 And find the chaos, the messiness, the broken pieces within
 To welcome them and integrate them into you
 As you keep walking towards the light
 After a very messy few days, I got myself back in track, plugged back to myself, walking my own rhythm, flowing gently and softly through the subtle frequency of winter, standing in my own revolution of respecting what my body needs regardless of what the system expects us to do, to be, to perform.

 What if we gave ourselves permission to set a new pace?
 

 AND if you are still interested in setting goals for the year YAY! We got you!:

HOW TO SET GOALS
 Objetive Setting
 SMART Goals
 
 HOW TO MAKE THEM LAST
 Make New Year Resolutions Work

 Where are you in this spectrum? Ready to seize the year with new plans or ready to snuggle under the blanket and get that extra rest that you deserve? We can do both! We can go FAST or we can go FAR.
 
 As always, continue reading for the activities coming to you this month.
 
 With love and gratitude,
 
 Monica x