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Like you no doubt, I receive quite a few emails from people whose work I'm interested in, and at this time of year they're basically all about the same thing: new beginnings.
It's a game we all play isn't it - 1st January is Significant in Some Meaningful Way.
It's a time to make resolutions and declarations, to look at where we are and where we want to be and make plans to get from here to there.
And we all know that the date has nothing to do with that really.
We could do all of those things on any day, in any given moment.
Every moment of our lives is new.
We don't step in the same river twice, and we're not the same person who steps in the river each time either, as the saying goes.
But let's just play along anyway, because we can choose that, and maybe it's helpful.
{And if it isn't, we can choose not to! I'm all for a bit of upstream thinking.}
So with all these new year emails I've been receiving, I've noticed that many of us have not started this 'new year' as we usually might.
That familiar shiny and new feeling just isn't there for a lot of us.
This can be attributed to many things - 3+ years of global turmoil and the exhaustion that ongoing fear, grief, and in-your-face uncertainty bring; current astrology; energy patterns; personal trials - all of that.
And that's fine. Our brains like to have 'reasons' to hang our feelings on, so they make sense somehow.
I'm finding though that while I too have not burst into 2023 in a blaze of high energy and enthusiasm, {I seem to be plastered to the sofa most of the time right now}, a few concepts are swirling that I'm finding useful.
For the January lesson inside the Happy Artist Studio I recorded an audio about ways we can think about our art and our lives as artists, and create the coming year with intention.
Co-create might be a better word actually. It's become yet another buzzword, but we don't ever create in a vacuum, even when we're alone in the studio.
In the lesson, I talk about zooming out for a bird's eye view, so we can see the whole, before we zoom back in and begin.
And that beginning part - as much as it's not the same river and we're not the same person, it's always - comfortingly - the same.
We take a first step.
That's all we need to do, no matter the bigger picture. It's all we can do, thank goodness!
We all have dreams and goals and plans. And whether we journal or plot things out in a calendar or simply have a vague notion, or anything in between, we all start in the same place, with that first step.
And that first step is not inherently laden with pressure.
It doesn't define the rest of the year or our lives or even the day ahead.
It will just start the walk.
During one of the worst periods of my depression, my therapist at the time had me create a board with moveable notes.
The board mapped out the week day by day, hour by hour, because that was all I could do at that time. I was barely managing minute to minute.
Each hour had a post it note with an action on it. They were very small actions, and many just said 'rest'.
I chose the actions to put on the post it notes, and I could move them around on the board, but there needed to be some post its every day, so I could keep going, and walk myself - step by step - back towards health.
I rediscovered that board recently, and felt a little sad for the girl who had needed it.
But also, what a beautiful tool and reminder it is, that, as Martin Luther King put it:
"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
When I'm panicking and feeling overwhelmed by just how much there is to do to run my business and live my life {and how will I ever fit painting in?}, it helps so much to remember that the only thing I ever need to do is the next step.
Maybe it's sit down and write to you.
Maybe it's stop whatever I'm doing, pause, and breathe slowly from my stomach instead of my upper chest.
Maybe it's make a cup of tea, or get up and stretch, or just get the wood panels out for my next painting collection.
Reading this email was a step for you, and hopefully it gave you permission or relief or inspiration to take the next one, whether that means something dynamic, or lying down!
Here are some questions to ponder as we ease into 2023:
When you zoom out and look across the year, what does that feel like right now?
What would you like it to feel like?
What could you choose to create more of that feeling?
What are today's essential steps?
What's the next one?
Now breathe, and step forward. We're all doing it alongside you. 😊
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