As the Winter Solstice approaches, I feel my body descending into a season of slowness, introspection, dreaming and rest. A season where enough is enough, simple is best and sleep is abundant. I’m sipping freshly made cacao infused with maple syrup from home as I write this, and it’s divine… a physical reminder that adding intention and magic to your day can be as easy as taking your time to craft a drink that reverberates through your heart and soul while listening to nature sounds on your speaker.

When I emerged from my cocoon of wedding planning and celebrations, and subsequently regained my brain space (organizing an event of that scale is a full-time job, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) I felt a strong pull to pour more energy into my business. To launch new ideas, push to create more financial success for myself, find my footing in this new era. And while these endeavours were well-intentioned, I’m noticing now that it wasn’t the time for them.

This year may have been slower for my business, but I also married the love of my life and settled myself in a new country more permanently. I cannot discount these massive achievements just because they land in the column of my personal life; they’re something I wished and manifested over many, many years. They deserve their moment to shine and be celebrated.

I must also acknowledge the clients who did enter my sphere are so perfectly aligned with the vision I hold for my business. It’s a true case of quality over quantity, and my brain sparkles at the thought of working with them all more in the new year.

In 2023, I set out with the plan to live my life and grow my business according to the external seasons. I didn’t rush out with new goals in January, instead I paused and planned and dreamed. Spring and summer were the seasons to create, connect and launch new things. Autumn was a turn inward, a time to account for the year’s achievements and to prepare for winter. It’s a form of cyclical living, but expanded from that monthly picture to an annual one.

As the year ends, more thoughts and ideas have bubbled forward with each slow step towards Yule. They’re not fully formed quite yet, but there are many themes around deepening my connection to cyclical living and how that can infuse with and support my clients.

There’s the outer layer of cyclical living: cycle charting, listening to your physical body, learning the language of menstrual cycle awareness. There’s the next layer: aligning your lifestyle and business with the fluctuations of your hormones, building your self-care toolkit, nourishing your menstrual eco-system. There’s the next again: coordinating business events and launches around your inner seasons, communicating your needs to your loved ones and peers, recognizing your unique needs and wants.

Layers upon layers upon layers of learning, experimenting, failing, trying again, trying something new, failing again, discovering what works until your cycle evolves again and again… as I said before, it’s a language to learn and understand versus a rigid pattern to memorize and obsess over.

And now I’m in an era where I’m seeing how this work expands beyond the self. How this education around resting before doing, finding your unique gifts and strengths, meeting others where they are in their own cycle… all of this fits together in creating a new world.

A world where we enjoy a slower pace. A world where we create from a place of love and inspiration instead of comparison and panic. A world where we each hold our own definitions of success and celebrate them equally. A world outside of scaling businesses, building teams and hustling (not that these things are inherently bad, but we don’t all need to strive for them every day).

A world where the individual person does matter and can make a difference, and a vibe of empowered freedom in community can come forth.

You’ll know when it’s time to start and stop, to bloom or to witness others, to rest freely and profoundly in your knowing that you are enough. Everything you have created is enough.

Here is my invitation to you: Listen to my Inner Winter playlist, make a warm drink and sit with yourself. Write down all the things you did this year, from January to today. The business-related items, sure, but also the personal triumphs. Big or small, add them to the list. Toast yourself and this year. You’re still here, moving forward day-by-day, and you are worthy of this celebration.

You are enough, just as you are.

x Lauren