Catching up & checking in
Well, hello! How are you all doing?
It’s been a really long time since I last sat down and wrote a blog post - almost 3 whole months in fact, which I think is probably the longest I’ve gone without sharing a post since I first started blogging 6 years ago! I never really intended to take a break - I shared my last post mid-December and had every intention to be back in January, but somehow, here we are at the end of March and I’m only just opening up a blank Google doc and getting round to it.
I don’t think I’m alone in feeling like the last few months have been a slog. A combination of the darkest winter months and a third lockdown was always going to be tricky, but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how much of a toll it would take. But now, with spring officially here and a bit of hope on the horizon, I can feel myself coming back to life again, and I realised just how much I’d missed sharing my thoughts in this way.
So, what’s been going on since we last caught up? In short, a lot. Despite spending the last 3 months in lockdown, it has felt like quite an intense time of transition and change - in ways both big and small, wonderful and challenging.
So let’s start with the big stuff - we welcomed my beautiful baby niece, Lyla, into the world at the beginning of this month, and it’s safe to say I am completely smitten with her already. I am so proud of my lovely sister and so excited about the memories we’ll all make with Lyla in the coming months and years. Sadly, we also said goodbye to my beloved Grandad this month, something that has felt particularly challenging given that none of us have been able to see him this last year. I feel like I’ve experienced just about every emotion possible in the last few weeks, and that’s definitely left me feeling a little depleted.
There have been some big changes bubbling behind the scenes in my business, too. It’s strange because the things that have been absorbing most of my time aren’t quite ready to be shared with the world just yet, but the next few weeks will see it all slowly start to come together and I can’t wait to see what you all think. One project is a brand new direction for me, while the other feels like a deepening of the work I’ve been doing for years now, and both have been stretching me in the best possible way.
The final big transition is that we’ve decided to try and move house this year. It’s not something that will happen in the immediate future (I think trying to move at the same time as conducting the research project for my Masters might be asking for a nervous breakdown!), but we’re slowly starting to get our house ready to sell, while also doing a bit of research into what’s on the market at the moment. This has meant our weekends have been full of trips to B&Q and endless Rightmove scrolling!
Aside from all of that, my 1:1 coaching work has been keeping me busy, I’ve been studying hard at uni (I can’t believe I’m almost two thirds of the way through my Masters degree already, it’s been a whirlwind!), and I’ve been trying to keep prioritising all the things that make me feel good - reading, lots of big walks and taking care of my health.
While all of these big, tangible changes have been happening, there have also been some smaller, more subtle shifts at play. In many ways I feel like this last year has been a process of relearning who I am and what I want, something that has undoubtedly been catalysed by the sense of existentialism we’ve all been experiencing. There are new parts of myself that I’m just discovering, but also some old parts that I am so enjoying reconnecting with.
This is something that I’d love to dive into in a future post, but for now, this catch up is probably long enough already! It’s been a strange, magical, heartbreaking, difficult and beautiful start to the year, and I’ve needed some space away from sharing my thoughts here with you all. But I’m so happy to be back - writing has always provided me with a sense of catharsis, and as we all start to slowly reflect and understand this period of time, I know that writing these posts will help me immensely. And hopefully they’ll be of some use or interest for you guys too.
For now, I’d love to know - how have you all been getting on recently? What’s new with you?
