Project Slowdown

How are you feeling about December and Christmas itself? Excited? Overwhelmed? Dreading it? Maybe a mix of them all?

If you google women+christmas+holidays+stress+pressure there's a huge number of articles and even research on how women create the bulk of holiday magic (yep it's not elves guys). It's easy to say "just do less" or "just give less f***s!" but it's not easy to shed the weight of others' expectations and feel like we're disappointing them.

I'm going to survive this year by committing to at least one slow, simple thing amongst the busyness every day this December. Non-negotiable is a yoga nidra every day. I first did this transformative practice in my 20s but have started picking it up again recently, and my favourite right now is Adrianna Zaccardi's - she kindly said I could pass it on to you (and here's more about her and her brilliant offerings). It's an incredible restorative practice where you seem to float between rest and sleep, and if you can find 15 mins in your day to lie on the carpet or a mat under a blanket and listen to a voice guiding you back into your body, I feel almost 100% certain you'll have a really different December. 

It's a focused slowing-down practice that has a ripple-effect on the rest of your day. Although we're keen to ensure everyone around us has a great Christmas, you feeling calm, present and happy is also a really important gift for them.

I think regular self-care practices like nidra get us into that place where we can more easily let go of all the I shoulds (home make mince pies, get all the shopping done by October, arrange a Kardashian style photo shoot with the children dressed as Christmas puddings) and feel more present in many more of the moments of our lives. I've found that even in moments of pressure or high-speed - like when I have to run for my train to work aka every single working day of my life - I can often feel this slow and present quality that often emerges as joy.  

I hope this is a useful reminder - all that's in my Instagram feed are reminders to slow down and give better gifts, which is very encouraging, unlike the emails in my inbox from brands telling me that I need to buy their stuff to be happy (unsubscribe!)

Hope you can find some space, ask for help or say yes when offered it and outsource wherever possible so that silly season feels more like slow season. Let me know how you get on.