January is a time of renewal.
My 3-step daily renewal practice to keep stress, anxiety, and burnout in check.
Focus Topic: Renewal
The act or process of renewing:
• to make like new : restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection
• to make new spiritually
• to begin again
merriam-webster
Greetings and Happy New Year!
I hope you had a peaceful and restful holiday. I’m coming back from the holiday feeling recharged and excited to kick off a new year of community, creativity, and growth.
January is often a quieter time of year for work, which affords me the space to reflect on the prior year and begin setting intentions and planning for the year ahead. I find that energetically, in these early weeks of the year, I’m not quite ready to dive into work and am more interested in getting organized, decluttering my space, and seeking activities that offer stillness and space for reflection and new visions to emerge. Knowing that in the months ahead, things will again be busy and cruising along.
Reflecting on the natural rhythm that occurs with the change of season and the transition from the pause during the holidays to the sense of beginning again that happens at the new year, when we all return to our usual activities, inspired this month’s focus topic, which is "renewal.”
The R word we’re most familiar with at the start of the new year is resolution. Do you find resolutions a bit anxiety-inducing? I certainly do, as if out of nowhere society asks me to look at my life and come up with a firm list of definitive should’s and shouldn’t’s for the year ahead, as if to come to terms with all the slacking off and extra indulging I’ve been doing the past few weeks.
So I’d like to offer a word that’s a little gentler, that follows the natural flow of nature in renewal. With an invitation to consider what aspects of your life you would like to see newness, freshness, and new energy this year? What things bring you a feeling of renewal in your life?
Some may still hear the word renewal, and their mind will go right to their expired passport or gym membership, and that’s OK, because I’m going to share with you how I apply the idea of renewal into a set of practices that allow me to attune to my energy levels, notice when I become uncentered, and find renewal by choosing activities that restore my presence and energy whenever I need them. As opposed to something I have to remember or wait to do after it expires, or once every year or so, like taking a vacation or getting back to the gym.
Do I do these practices consistently every single day? Not always; life can get in the way, but what I’ve learned through having the intention to practice them is that I’ve gotten better at noticing when I need them and can easily give myself some renewal whenever I’m in need of it.
Welcome back, and thank you for being part of this community of creatives supporting other creatives with me! I wish you a year of abundance, growth, and renewal.
With Grattitude,
Shawn
A Three-Step Daily Renewal Practice
Attune: Become aware of the natural flow and rhythm of your energy. What draws from your energy, and what replenishes your energy each day?
Notice: Find and adopt a routine mindfulness practice that allows you to notice, pause, and make conscious choices to seek renewal.
Renew: Write down a few simple activities that bring you renewal that you can regularly practice each day or when you need them. Write them down and put them somewhere you’ll see them every day.
I’ve made special just for you three practices to attune, notice, and renew with downloadable exercises, a meditation practice, and guidance on how these practices help me find renewal each day.
A visual excercise to attune to your energy flow
To effectively renew ourselves wouldn’t it first be helpful to become aware of where our energy goes big picture to begin with? What aspects of our lives take energy from us and increase stress, and what areas of our lives put energy back in and renew us?
This is is the second year in a row i’m doing this excercise in January, and last year it really helped bring clarity at the time to what I experienced as a fog of not knowing why some days I felt excited and other days I felt sluggish or worse, overwhelmed.
Not only did it help me start to sort out and make sense of my complex energy cycle, but it also just got me thinking about it more and became a helpful reference for checking if my energy is flowing towards the things that elevate me in life or if I’m doing more of the things that leave me feeling exhausted and drained.
A Centering Practice for renewal and noticing what’s present in the moment
If I could boil mindfulness and the benefit having a mindfulness practice has had on me into a single word, it would be "noticing.”. Just simply pausing and noticing without reaction or judgement. In a sense, noticing is both the practice and the benefit gained through practice. In that, the more I practice, the more I notice in and out of practice!
Increasing awareness of our mental and physical state and noticing when things feel out of balance trains our ability to choose activities that support our well-being. Noticing gives us the option to choose to take actions that will give us renewal and recharge our energy, vs. unconsciously or involuntarily choosing behaviours and patterns that drain us.
I offer this simple mindfulness practice that is my go-to for coming back to center between activities during the day so I can notice what’s coming up inside of me, make conscious decisions about how to support my well-being, and break from rushing from one thing to the next and feeling burned out at the end of the day. The practice involves tuning into the breath to calm the nervous system and clear the mind, and a simple body scan to notice any tension held in the body while breathing into those areas to release and relax further into the practice. Enjoy!
A reminder to seek the renewal you need each day
This is the simple reminder I keep pinned on the wall next to my desk that helps me remember to prioritize activities that bring me renewal and stay accountable to my goal of one hour of me-time every day.
Prioritizing a daily practice of renewal has been a game changer when it comes to managing my baseline stress level, anxiety, and potential for burnout. They’re also activities I implement after stressful events to help return to center.
If you did the energy exercise above, you may already have some good ideas of things you like to do that renew you. By having a simple mindfulness practice, you’re going to develop your ability to notice, pause, and consciously choose activities that renew you when you need them vs. being on autopilot and falling into behaviours that maybe provide some short-term relief but overtime don’t contribute to your well-being meaningfully.
To find what activities renew you, consider what you love to do that helps you feel good, that is sustainable (maybe not an extra 30 min. scrolling instagram), something you couldn’t get enough of, or something you wish you did more of that you love, and that the more you do, the better you feel.
It’s OK to start small. My goal for the past year has been to give myself one hour a day that’s entirely mine, broken out into three 20-minute chunks.
I divide my daily hour of renewal into mind, body, and spirit, as those three areas, if I can continually sustain and renew them with small conscious efforts, I feel will contribute to my overall wellbeing in a big way.
Here are a few more ideas for renewing activities: making a playlist of calming music, having a favorite book of poetry nearby, doing some simple stretches, journaling, taking a bath, or finding a place outside your home or office to walk or get some fresh air.
Download a copy of the reminder
In closing, I leave you with a quote that invites you to follow the natural rhythms of renewal in nature.
“I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep ... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass.”
― May Sarton
Journal of a Solitude
I hope you have fun with it! Renewal is about prioritizing the things you love to do so you can feel fresh and energized.⚡️❤️
Thank you for joining me! I’d love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or a story you’d like to share with this community. Hit me up!
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