This is a letter about my primary intention for 2023.
Hello loves, I hope your first week of 2023 has been good to you. And if it hasn’t, I hope you have had the support that you need and the tools to get through it.
I had a beautiful start to the year, in the Lifehouse spa and hotel. It really was a blissful way to arrive at and embark on, the new adventure that is 2023.
As regular readers will know I have been through a big shift in the last couple of years and I am so ready to do new things now. Last week I shared my intentions, which is an evolving list. I have now come up with one primary intention for the year.
I will be 50 years old in July, so I have decided to do 50 new things this year, which works out to roughly one thing per week. Which sounds like a lot, so I have broken it down and decided that the new thing can be big or small.
It might be going to a new place, or it might be trying a new food or drink – so far, I have tried Kopi Luwak Coffee. It was great! If you want to know what that is click here.
I have made a great start since I have never begun the year at a spa before, so that is one thing ticked off already. I have also seen Derren Brown’s Showman, which was so good!
I can’t share anything about this show, as it would spoil it if you wanted to see it, but what I can share, is that I didn’t expect it to pull on my heart. As part of the show, he shared the regrets of the dying. I have seen these before, but it was a moving reminder. You can read them here. Written by a palliative care nurse, the regret she heard the most was ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me’
If you already have the gift of health, make sure you’re living life true to yourself and your own dreams.
On a similar theme, I have listened to Davina McCall on a podcast this week. When talking about grieving her sister, she said, don’t wait until it’s too late to start putting together and then doing your bucket list. On the way to the spa, I also had a conversation with my friends where I realised that at 50 I am probably over halfway through my life. I have resolved to make it an extraordinary second act. The second act of any good show is always that one that really gets you, stays with you and brings everything to a moving conclusion.
That’s what I want.
I am not going to sleepwalk through life.
I am not going to miss what is important.
And what is important is often the small daily things that make up a life; a laugh shared with family and friends, an inside joke, noticing something silly and laughing until your sides hurt, a great hug from someone, a perfectly ripe peach, great coffee, an uplifting book, show or podcast…
Next week I will be seeing Matthew Bournes’ Sleeping Beauty with my daughter.
Other things I have thought of with the help of the lovely friends I was with on New Year’s Day are things like: hiking up Snowden, taking a dance class, taking a solo spa day, stand-up paddle-boarding and therapeutic horse riding.
I am so happy, hopeful and excited about this year, for the first time in a long time.
If you have any ideas or anything you would like to do with me, please do pop me a message. Let’s go have some fun!
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