January 2025

January 1^st, 2025 … I wonder what this year will bring … as I sit here in my favourite forest, feeling the cooling wind on my back, listening to the water flowing behind me, cicadas buzzing in the background, the birds chirping.   

As many of you know, I enjoy to sit in nature and allow that deeper listening – not just the sounds of nature, which in themselves can be very healing, nourishing and delightful – but to deeply listen to whatever we want to call it: The Universe; God; Spirit; Mother Earth; that deeper wisdom that we all have access to, when we remember to drop in and listen. 

I suspect, like the last years, 2025 will require each of us to dive into that deeper listening, into that well of wisdom.

As we start this New Year, I encourage each of us to take some time to reflect on what has past and perhaps to give ourselves permission to let go of things, happenings, situations, memories, people – that we don't need to bring in to 2025. 

Being here immersed in the nature I am reminded the cycles of life. Everything from the newborn and new seedlings to the old, the broken, the burned. Sometimes young saplings knocked over – we have had floods here in the last years and there are enormous piles of debris present, but, at the same time there is so much new growth.

That is what I would like to highlight for all of us in 2025. 

Sure, there are going to be the obstacles, sure, there are going to be those events and circumstances that will feel challenging. But perhaps we can have our focus on what is growing, what is evolving, what is emerging within ourselves, within the people around us, in the environment and society around us, and maybe, even on the wider global collective level. 

Despite all the complexity can we put our attention to what is growing? 

Nature, ourselves (because we are part of nature!) are hardwired to grow. That natural drive to explore, to be curious, to keep moving forward even when we feel most desperate. Something within us keeps rising, something within us has that capacity to keep in movement and growth. Where we put our attention, where we focus our mind, and attention does influence our growth. 

If we looking for the problems and difficulties we find them! And will probably find a lot more than we perhaps intended! 

If we focus on what we feel grateful for, what we feel thankful for, what we're being surprised about, what we're curious about, growth can happen. Curiosity is a powerful driver of growth. The gratefulness and thankfulness tend to put our mental health, our perspective, into growth in ways that really help us develop strength, resilience and capacities to navigate these new challenges.

I am sure you've all had that experience when you have had a challenge or difficulty, and you really focused on it and just felt heavier and more overwhelmed. “Ooh it's all too hard!” Literally losing energy. I think we've all had those experiences. Some of us more than others and some of us can be deeply weighed down with the weight of existence seemingly pressing on us. 

However, if you can think of a moment where you felt supported, cared for, perhaps even loved - if you can think of a moment in your life where you rose, you stepped up. I am sure each one of you has experiences where you have done that - despite the circumstances - you have risen and evolved with the situation; you have grown with that. 

I suspect 2025 will be giving us lots of opportunities for growth! Some of those opportunities may still be challeng. I have a feeling that there will also be nourishing and positive experiences, both individually and collectively, as this year progresses as well. 

Somewhere around the end of February it might feel like there is a window of hope, of possibility – this might be a good time to make some decisions if you need to make any! Onwards from then life may become more overwhelming or perhaps life feels like it is not quite moving the way you would like it to be. Or we might look out to our wider world and say: “Oh that doesn't look good !” 

However, if we can keep looking for the small things that can uplift us, inspire us, stimulate our hope. If we can be kind to ourselves and to each other. To smile and say hello as we walk down the street or walk into your favourite cafe or workplace. This can nourish the growth. 

Many of you know that my life is a lot about service, supporting of others. I can highly recommend small acts of kindness such as picking up the bags for somebody, helping someone with directions, opening the door - often with just a smile and a hello you can make the world of difference for somebody. We all need to be seen, we all need to feel that other people recognise us, that we are not just a body moving, that we are not just a number but a human being. 

I find when we practise looking into the eyes of another, practise smiling, there is a response - and it feels good, really good! It is truly worthwhile experimenting with! 

Of course, there will be situations and difficulties where you may not feel like smiling. If you can, these are the moments to be kind and gentle with yourself, to hold your own hand and have a little out loud chat to yourself and remind yourself to take it easy, take a breath and remember to exhale. I highly recommend regular walks in nature, find a log to sit upon like I am now and simply “be”, even if it is just a few minutes. To sit down and just “be”, breathe and allow. Allow your nervous system, your body, mind, emotions and spirit to at least for a few minutes to relax and not have to do anything, be anybody, nobody to answer to, nothing - just space to “be”.   

Breathe – and – Exhale …. 

When we exhale, we naturally open to inhale the oxygen to nourish our cells, our body, refreshing our nervous system. 

As we enter 2025 with the complexity that I am sure will unfold - please be open to the minor miracles and magic, be open to the unexpected. I can suggest consciously reminding yourself to keep an open mind as we can so often quickly conclude meaning based on our past experiences - please just take that extra breath and remind yourself to “not know” and simply “be”. Reminding yourself that maybe this is not as difficult or as bad as you initially thought.

Allowing that sometimes with the challenges and problems that we face with our relationships, our work or our inner relationship with ourselves, the wider community and situations we find ourselves in - if we can permit that gentleness, that relaxed energy and maybe consider that the “universe has our back”.  Maybe there is magic. Perhaps we don’t need to strive and fix whatever is or is not happening? A chance that there is a different flow possible? 

Being out here in the nature where there have been regular floods over the last years, the flow of the water just moves around debris, moves over the fallen trees. Maybe we can be a bit like that, be open to our path shifting and changing. Sometimes subtly and gently and sometimes it might be a bigger diversion that could potentially lead us into something better, something we didn't imagine or predict. Going with the natural flow. 

This is not just for us individually but could also be for us collectively. 

I know there are some people who are quite concerned about the world events and how things are. 

Personally, I suspect we still have a few more years of challenges ahead. Yet I do get the sense that new beginnings and new options that will be arising. Potential that we are not talking about at the moment, and we are not perhaps aware of, or that we are not able to visibly see. Yet they are there – these new horizons. 

I come back to this overall sense of growth. Not just for us as individuals but the Earth herself, systems, society as a whole. 

Sometimes in that growth may come some big crashes. In the forest big trees come crashing down. But what will rise? When big trees fall they open the light and provide fertile material for growth.

So perhaps the challenges of the last years and those challenges we may yet face, as terrible and tragic as they are for many people, so heartbreaking for some as we witness the happenings - yet perhaps within there are new beginnings in these challenges and complexities. 

Perhaps out of these challenges and complexities emerge new understanding, new wisdom, new leaders, new inventions - new pathways and systems. 

I know that's where my attention is going to be this year – to focus on what is evolving, what is growing within myself, around me and in the wider world. What can I be available to support, what can I encourage and nourish. 

I do hope that you join me this year, on having the focus on what emerging, the growth, the evolutionary points, new wisdom, innovation and perhaps New Hope - that will all be arising.  And when the dark moments happen, when the clouds come over, to be gentle and kind with yourself in each other and maybe navigate 2025 with grace and kindness.

 Much love to you all … Kira 💗