Monday 15th January 2024

Hibernating and Creativity

Hello Dear Friend,

Apologies for my absence last week. As I have mentioned previously I have been suffering from poor health recently, and my pain relief had stopped working. Over the past ten days I have been slowly increasing my morphine levels to find that sweet spot where it works. I think I have now found that, and have just about gotten through the sleepy, brain fog side-effects. Huzzah!

How are you? Really? I know quite a few of you are going through some tough times at the moment, I am keeping you in my heart and sending you lots of love and hugs.

Sending you lots of hugs Photo by C.Valdez on Unsplash

Hibernating

Although the sun is shining I think a few folk have had trouble shaking the lethargy hangover from the festive period. Katherine May wrote an interesting article about human hibernation for the Guardian in February 2020, perfect timing for her book Wintering: How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen -

She starts the article by saying:

Even after the final New Year corks have popped, my own reforming zeal gets me through. I may not be tempted by dry Januaries, diets and punishing exercise regimes, but I’m always a sucker for a fresh start, for plans drawn up on new stationery and commitments made to improve myself.

But by early February, I’m sagging. Tired, hungry and sick of the dark, my motivation has run out, my bank account is empty and the world feels soggy underfoot. I start to skip my yoga class and social invitations feel like an imposition. The urge to pull the duvet over my head becomes very strong indeed.

The Guardian online, Sunday 9th February, 2020

I love her conclusion to this article, positing some ideas on how to incorporate hibernating into our own winters. It is a quick read, so won’t spoil the full conclusion. But she finds it grounding to follow the old festivals such as Imbolic, which is celebrated on the 1st February. Imbolic symbolises the begining of Spring, longer days and traditionally its when the first lambs being born.

Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

Some Ideas For Creativity

When I am feeling a little under the weather I find that doing something creative always helps, so below are a couple of ideas if you are the same.

The first is this lovely tutorial from Jane of Snapdragon Life - as soon as I have cleared a square inch on my desk I am going to give it a go - and I will share my effort next week. (*Accountability, if I say it here I will have to do it.)

Journalling is another little thing which brings me joy and peace, I usually use a dot grid paper journal, filled with lots of washi tape and stickers, doodles, and stamping. My journal and diary are set up for this year, well, the bare bones of them anyway. I just need to add a few fiishing touches, break out the rubber stamps and I am good to go. I used to struggle with all the layouts and BuJo instructions, but when I took Felicity Ford’s, aka Felix, Bullet Journal Course. It suited me down to the ground, it gave me permission to be messy and colourful all the while journalling my life. If this sounds of interest to you it is only £35 for the course, and there are fully funded places available if needed.

The start of my books read in 2024, with the Agathat Christie Reading Challenge on the left.

If you have any ideas for creative workshops, maybe drop them into the comments on this post, I would love to see what you recommend.

Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

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Until next time, bye for now.

Links:

Wintering: How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen, by Katherine May

Snapdragon Life - Holly Tutorial on YouTube

Snapdragon Life website

Felix’s Bullet Journaling Course

Anything in bold and underlined is a link to the relevant article or web page. None are affiliate links, just things I hope to benefit you, or people I admire and have worked with.

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