How are you? If you are feeling a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, you aren’t alone. This Full Moon in Cancer, also known as a “Wolf Moon,” has the tendency make it easier for you to “feel all the feels.”
How’s the New Year started off for you?
I realized something this week.
While so many people I see online are “going hard, mapping out their goals for the next year so they can “crush them,” or “killing it” already with their lives, fitness targets, detoxes or whatever – I’ve kind of been doing the opposite.
I started this New Year slowly and working LESS. And yes, that was intentional 😉
Some of my intentions for the coming year are INTEGRATION, EASE, STRENGTH, PLAY and DANCE.
As I neared the end of 2016, I was completely exhausted and knew that I needed to dedicate time to myself and honouring physical, emotional AND spiritual needs in order to show up fully for my business and family during this next year.
What does that look like for me?
Well, since the week before New Year’s –
I dance, almost every day!!
I cleanse and nourish my body with the most amazing plant-based foods and essential oils (More on this soon)
I work out 3x/week.
I take naps!!
I swim in the ocean at least 2x/week.
I started reading a book – FICTION, no less!!
I make a point to express love and gratitude daily.
I practice honesty about my needs and desires, even when it’s hard.
I’ve basically taken myself on a retreat and immersion back into self-care.
Intuitively, I know that THIS is what’s going to serve me more through the next year than endless lists, a packed schedule full of targets, and a focus on the end result rather than the journey.
Make the journey enjoyable, every step of the way.
This is something I learned again last year, the hard way. I stopped enjoying what I was doing. I was all business and no fun. And it sucked the spark out of me.
I was speaking with a client about this a few nights ago.
It was our final session and I asked her what she was most grateful for during our time working together (6 months 1-1 coaching and the Drink Less Be More Masterclass).
She had been working with me during one of the hardest times of the year for her, the holiday season.
Here’s what she said:
“I am so grateful for finally having an understanding what self-care really means for me and how to care for myself holistically. I feel like self-care was this concept I read about but I didn’t really know that it meant for me. So coming home at the end of the end was drinking wine. Now, I know that loving myself is drinking a cup of tea and reading a book instead. I have created new rituals and habits and now have all of these tools that support me in being healthy.”
I then shared with her something I haven’t really shared publicly yet.
I hit bottom a couple of months before Christmas.
It wasn’t the same kind of bottom I had at the end of my 20s, where I was drinking myself to sleep (on top of taking the some of the same pills to “relax and sleep” that Heath Ledger was taking when he died).
It wasn’t the frequently drinking till the point of blacking out kind of bottom.
Let’s call it my “new bottom” that reflects my new reality.
I wasn’t drinking myself to sleep, but there were times that I felt the urge to.
In fact, I was thinking about drinking a lot more than I had in years.
When I did drink, I certainly didn’t drink enough to get drunk let alone blackout, but I did break my own rule about not drinking when I felt like I “needed” a drink.
I felt like I was unravelling.
I didn’t have control over my emotions.
I was exhausted, all of the time and yet I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.
This is hard for me to share. But I believe it’s important.
What had happened to bring me here?
Over the course of the past year, through the publication of my book (ironic given the topic, I know), the subsequent increased publicity, the growth of my coaching practice, the challenge of parenting a toddler, the travel, the moving between two countries and back this summer…
I had stopped taking care of myself.
And while for my recent client, self-care and self-love meant tea and reading a book, for me – it’s dancing and being in my body. I had stopped doing that and as such, was denying myself the very thing I needed to nourish my soul.
As soon as I started prioritizing dance and embodiment and activities that brought me joy and a sense of freedom – everything shifted. It didn’t take long. My body and spirit remembered, and wanted to feel “at home” again as soon as possible.
I shared this with my client as I reminder her that “life happens.” And it’s often not so much about what happens, as what you decide to do next.
There will be times when we get busy, when tragedy strikes, when things shift in a way that’s hard to understand at first (as recently happened with me) and suddenly you realize you aren’t caring for yourself anymore.
The beauty of the awareness that comes from doing this kind of work is that you NOTICE when this happens. You catch it. You course correct. You feel “off.”
And then you figure out what you need to do to find your way back to yourself again.
Your baseline has shifted.
You have created a new normal for yourself.
You can never go too long ignoring your deep desires, needs and passions again.
It feels so good to care for yourself and LOVE yourself that you will never go for too long without it.
Once you have this awareness, you can’t get rid of it!!
Within about a month and a half of rearranging my schedule, asking for more support and re-prioritizing how I spend my time and treat my body – I feel wonderful.
I feel whole again.
I feel like ME.
I want you this for you too.
I want you to always know how to find your way back to yourself.
I want you to connect with that inner light, that spark, so that you can shine more brightly.
Now, I know you might be thinking, that’s great Caitlin but it’s not that easy for me. I can’t just “rearrange my schedule” for a month and go swimming in the ocean when I want to.
I get it. I really do.
That’s what Lucir 2017 is all about.
It’s a week-long total immersion.
An opportunity to reconnect and reset.
It’s an experience that invites you into my world.
To share everything I’ve learned and to create your own, personalized brand of self-love.
To move your body in ways that feel good for YOU (that’s why we are offering a range of activities from Hatha yoga to aqua yoga to swimming to dance to a gentle hike to hot springs and so much more).
To eat the best food available, all locally sourced and made freshly every single day.
To dive into a variety of self-care practices so that find with ones work best for you.
To create the roadmap back to yourself, so that if you get off track, you always know how to find your way home again.
To know that you are supported, by the other Lucir participants, by me, and most importantly, by yourself because YOU made yourself a priority and invested in your health and happiness in a big way.
We are 50% sold out and expect the remaining spots to go very fast!
In honour of the beauty of friendship and the importance of a strong support system, we are offering a Bring your bestie Flash Sale from now until January 22nd.
The pricing is as follows:
2 friends book together: each get 10% off
3 friends book together: each get 15% off
4 friends book together: each get 20% off (WOW)
We still have 1 double room (which can be shared with up to 3 people), 1 king suite (which can be shared by 2 people) and the shared dorm-style room which can accommodate 4 friends!!
All of the prices and details including a sample schedule can be found here:
www.caitlinpadgett.com/mexico
It is the ultimate gift of self-care and self-love to put yourself and your desires first, to pay exquisite attention to your body, and to give yourself permission to share.
Time to press the reset and invite your friends along to share the beauty of this experience.
Together, we shine brighter!
Of course and as always, let me know if you have any questions!!
xoxo
ps that picture above? That’s taken at our venue. So yes, that really could be you!!