How do you find novel title for this? I can't!

A year coming to an end, a season to navigate & new beginnings.

Hello everyone,

Whilst this time of year comes around at the same time each year, and each year I tell myself, I will be prepared, here I am again thinking, OMG it’s only 3 weeks or so to go. I know, I am not alone in this! Living pretty remotely, as we do, last minute is not an option!

As many, I am reflecting on a fairly mixed year coming to a close. But also the new opportunities and people I have connected with over the last year. Along with, the new professional life I am embarking on and hopes for a house move, back to England. An exciting year ahead, in many ways.

I am definitely not into New Year’s Resolutions. I think we set ourselves up to fail. I know the years I have said, right, will lose a stone in weight, stop drinking and start exercising, I have done none of those things. And then given my self-critic lots of material to beat me over the head with. Often then leading to more drinking, more food and less exercising!!!

In more recent years I have been more intentional about planning short-term goals to move towards larger goals or to just think, well, this is a ‘just being’ year and that is ok.

Next year is not a ‘just being’ year for us. We do have things we would like to do. But the planning of those things has been in the works for months. We know what we need to do to move. Moving from the Highlands of Scotland to somewhere in the Wiltshire-ish area is no small undertaking, in so many ways. But steps towards that have been going on all of this year. It is intentional and thought out, with some flex around the edges.

Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash - not at this point just yet!

I have also changed direction in career and can’t thank some specific people enough who have helped me navigate the thinking process of this and enable me to put some things into action, namely

Sarah D Rees

of

Therapists Corner

without who, I don’t think this Substack would be active and I would have sunk into the ‘pivot’ mire without.

I would also like to mention

Sophie Wood

at

Therapists Corner

for her website, SEO and everything internet knowledge and the generous sharing of this.

Another gem, to mention is Jen Carrington at

Your Simple & Spacious Business

whose gentle and wise advise has totally changed the way I think about running a practice. I have gone from thinking the only way to run a business is to run myself into the ground to point of exhaustion (which is where I found myself this year) to, thinking, I could actually create space in my life to run a business and do other stuff as well and I don’t have to wear the badge of exhaustion that proves I am a great business owner, anymore.

Another shout out to Vladimir Uratarevic for bringing all my podcasts to life alongside his endless patience and voice coaching! You can find him HERE

Then there is my partner in life’s unending patience with all the u-turns this year, as well, whose unflinching faith in me, has kept me going in some pretty dark moments!

My lovely daughter took me on a wonderful holiday to Italy in March. It was my first holiday abroad for many years and I will always cherish those memories and 1000s of photos, of our first ‘adult’ holiday together. I am looking forward to going home to England so we can see so much more of her.

Isle of Capri, Day Trip - source, me!

On the flip side of all this wonderfulness, I have had some health issues and am trying to learn to slow down, which has and is causing some financial difficulties, which has been the source of much stress. We also lost our beloved Setter, Gem, in July. That is still very raw. She was my therapy dog and helped so many young people with their mental health therapy journey.

our Gem dog

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Looking forward a bit, I am excited to be going back to my original therapy aspirations of 20 years ago. Back then, I wanted to work in, what the NHS call, Early Intervention Services. That is services that are proactive and head off mental health difficulties developing in the first place. I wanted to start in children’s services with promoting understanding of our minds and how to manage them to develop healthy mind habits and healthy self-esteem. The year I qualified, it was all shut down and so I ended up in reactive services for a very long time, both with young people and adult services.

Now I am returning to my original mission to help everyone with our self-esteem, not just when we are depressed and anxious but the ‘dailyness’ of it. More to come on this in the new year.

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The coming season can be wonderful but also stressful. There is so much amazing stuff going on, here at Substack from many authors. And so I have just picked out a couple of authors who have things that might provide some small moments of calm, in what can be the storm of the coming festive season and beyond.

First up, a really useful strategy to find that moment of calm, is different types of intentional breathing.

Here is a lovely Box Breathing exercise, we can learn it when calm so we can then use it when we need to slow things down for ourselves:

Find Balance with Box Breathing

And next, to find a moment of present moment distraction:

Stress Care - Word Search

Each author has lots of other beautiful things, as well, to check out.

I have also personally enjoyed artist pages, illustrators and also travel pages as way to go into a new world of enjoyment. It is fun to search through Substack to find our favourites.

I do wish everyone a peaceful festive season, however you may or may not celebrate, although you will hear from me before!

With all warm wishes

Jane

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Floreo (Latin for flourish) Self-esteem is not just about confidence, it is the foundation of your human experience. It is your right to feel comfortable with yourself and flourish.

Subscribe now (it is all free) and join the movement towards healthy self-esteem development, something we can all benefit from, for ourselves and those around and us.

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