I do it every year.

I Promise myself I’m going to move pass the societal hype of what it means to be entering into another year. I shun the whole ‘New Year, New YOU’ narrative, reject New Years Resolutions and tell myself none of it really works.

And yet every year somehow I find myself slipping back into the old mental habits that convince me to join in somehow anyway.

So I decide my word of the year, I set some vague goals, normally related to my body size (sigh) and a million other things I must do better at this new year and then fail at the whole lot by the end of January.

I know what to do to *actually* have a positive, productive year – being a life coach you’d think I’d have NAILED them, right?! Wrong! I still fall for the conditioned patterns every year, and then feel disappointed when I don’t achieve the best year of my life within the first few months.

Sound familiar?

There’s comfort in the familiar things, my friend, even if they don’t serve us.

But this year something has changed and I cannot tell you how grounding it feels to be walking this season on another path.

Instead of working with dates and deadlines, I am leaning allll the way in to following the cycles and rhythm of nature. I decided that from now on, my new year begins with the welcoming of winter, as so many other cycles in nature do.

No fixed date.

No hyped-up start line.

Just a slow and gradual decline into a full season of rest, reflection and idea alchemisation.

One that started, for me, as October drifted into November, as the clocks changed and the nights grew longer.

I trust that a joyful Spring and an abundant Summer rely on a fully rested Winter. I feel spacious, un-pressured, grounded and really REALLY creative. Plus, it feels like a fun little secret to know I’ve already started my year when so many others are buzzing for a starting line I’ve finally rejected. Think tortoise. Think Hare. Slow and steady wins natures ‘race’.

And so, if like me, you are seeking a different approach to your New Year, if you’re tired of the false starts, the unnecessary self-pressure, the repeating patterns that have never served you…..maybe it’s finally time to lean allll the way in to the magic of nature instead?

Because if we are humble enough to stop and listen, nature has the answer, every time.