Your Holiday Season Circle

I have tried writing this multiple times this week and have really struggled to find any words.

The news is so heavy. Life is so full and loud and full of the million holiday season things we’re all meant to do at this time of year. I have new doula clients to welcome, get to know and hold. I have a real life community struggling with isolation and loneliness, magnified by the capitalist image of connection splashed all over every single TV, media platform, bus. So, I’m choosing to start my yearly break from newsletter writing after this one.

Paid subscribers will still get their final installment of Mindful Bookbinding, complete with a video tutorial showing you how to complete your journal, with lots of Yuletide prompts and activities. But everything else will have to wait for 2025.

This is your bi-monthlyish Community Connection post, where we come together to connect around a shared theme. We unfortunately did not do this online, due to power cuts, and I also know not everyone can make or wants to participate in online groups though and so here it is as a written invitation.

I usually only open this up to paid subscribers but want to put this one out to everyone because I just think we need all the connection - to ourselves, to each other, to the natural world outside our doors, as possible right now. Maybe you want to go light a candle, brew your favourite warm drink and dive in for a solo-circle? ✨

We start every circle with a deep breath.

And so I want to encourage you to take one now, two maybe? To notice the feeling of the breath moving through your body. Can you feel it slowing with your awareness? Can you feel your heartbeat slowing too? Grounding in to a deep sense of calm.

Below is a grounding exercise to get us warmed up and connected to ourselves and our bodies - perhaps you’d like to try it? It can be a good one to commit to doing once a day or once a week so you can get to see how your thoughts, feelings and inner world shifts and changes with time.

Next is the poem, and the journal prompts which accompanied them. I love this poem from Nikita Gill and come back to it often. My reasons to live changes every time and I find that as wonderful as the reminder. It is from her poetry collection ‘Where Hope Comes From’ which I can also really recommend.

I like to end each circle with a guided meditation, to bring you back to center. I really love the script below and felt it was a nice way to whole circle bring us back, to guide us to find stability in our own personal strength, even if the world outside our door does not feel stable currently.

You can find the audio recording here.

And the written script here.

Wishing you all a magical holiday season, remember to breathe, remember to feel, remember to just be.

Sending love and solidarity,

P.S. If you have enjoyed this, perhaps you’d like to become a paid subscriber and join us for more circles? All your money goes directly towards funding our free-to-access community space too so there really is nothing to lose 🥰

Subscribe now