New Year – January 2017

Happy New Year everyone!

It’s my heart-felt wish that each and everyone one of us finds a way to meet the highs and the challenges of 2017 with open hearts and solid integrity.

Not a good time for New Year resolutions

This newsletter is about gentle new beginnings. In my opinion this is not a good time of year to make big New Year resolutions. This is a deeply yin time of the year and it’s better for us to  deliberately embrace that energy and look more within. When we look deeply within, when we allow that space, we enter the “void” from which all creativity is born.

Ideas take shape from the space and then new energy arises so we can follow through with action. That is the Wood energy. Wood energy is spring time energy.

So although the light is changing, and there is hope for the rising energy of spring, we are not there yet. I think people often get depressed in January because we mistake the energy of the New Year for the spring time energy of Wood. Then our resolutions fall apart, because we’re not coming from the right place. We need to be in the space first.

This is the season of rest and reflection

Meditation is particularly beneficial at this time of year. Meditation is the creative space that we need. Because of this, the Meditation Spray will continue to be on sale for the time being.

Fear holds us back

Taking time to reflect can be something we avoid – life is busy and there’s always something else to do. Yet when we find ourselves

• lacking in will-power
• feeling guilty
• struggling to stick to anything,

it’s often because our Water energy is deficient. Fear holds us back from the beneficial inner work that we can do to deepen our creativity and find fulfillment in life.

Water Deficient is a combination essence from the Five Elements Set containing the following:

Betony – for fears that are locked in our unconscious mind. When our fears seem irrational, yet are hard to escape from, Betony helps to open us up to change and renewal.

Bladder Senna – for catharsis and change. Bladder Senna rids energies that have outlived their usefulness and creates space for new ways of working.

Compact Rush – helps us to fulfill our role in life, to activate positive change rather than feeling stuck. It assists the emergence of new beginnings, new energies and new insights.

Cyprus Rock Rose – for deep-rooted terrors that live in our subconscious mind.

Embracing space gently

If this makes sense, and you decide to embrace space – because who doesn’t love the idea of being in touch with our creativity – be gentle. Sometimes we push too hard. We tell ourselves we will do yoga for an hour every morning when we usually only manage the occasional class. Turns out this is usually a bad plan! We end up feeling frustrated and thinking we are “not getting anywhere”.

Quality is more important than quantity. Maybe “just” being in nature and hearing the birds sing for several minutes each day is exactly the kind of space we need.

"Sitting for five minutes mindfully is better than being determined to sit for an hour".

Sacred Lotus opens our hearts to the ultimate reality. Yet it does so at a safe pace. It makes sure we do things from our heart rather than our head.

Sacred Lotus. Open your heart to the divine.

Bringing in some gentle fire energy at this time of year is a good thing and Sacred Lotus is a beautiful heart essence.

So if people feel drawn to make a resolution for the New Year, perhaps it could be a softer gentler one. Maybe we could allow more space for ourselves so that the way forward for the coming year unfolds like a flower with grace and integrity. Solid goals are better set in late February as we approach the Wood time of year.

Happy, gentle, beautiful new year to you.

With love

Becca xx