New year, new intentions

Sea swimming — I love cold dips in the big blue but I get cold feet (literally) about going in from October onwards. This year I don’t want to stop in October, so this is my commitment to getting there 🧊

I’m going to leave my yoga mat out by my desk in an effort to encourage daily stretch & strength exercises. Plus I’m trialling a bunch of new zoom fitness classes trying to find one I can really get into... BLOK, yogarise, 305 fitness I’m coming for ya! (and if you have favs hit me up!)

I’m learning a little bit of German with Chatterbug. It’s nothing like the Latin languages I know and am used to so will take some time to get to grips with. This photo was taken in Berlin... i wanna wohne hier 😆

I finished my first novel in 2018 and started work on my second last year... so my side-project push this year is to get the first draft of this new one finished. So far it’s a dystopian fiction partly set on a tech-free island... 🧐. A big encouragement was having a short story win a little prize over the holidays.... just gotta keep writing!

It’s no secret that having a child can mean less couples time... an intention for 2021 is finding moments to be together as a two ❤️

Take more film photos of our little family... instant or other...probably the 52,000 photos on my phone will disappear 📸

Get out of my head and into the moment: 2020 was a perfect storm of challenges which led my brain to some dark places during periods of post-natal anxiety. Being open about this has also meant I’ve made some pretty cool connections along the road, and found solace and mental calm in unlikely places 💫

Be grateful.. this was how we saw in the New Year for 2020, with friends playing games around a table, not knowing of the “collective despair” of the year to come. Personally I was also dealing with uncontrollable eczema and had no idea of the physical upheaval and transformation my body would undergo in 2020. So this year, more than any other, I have immense gratitude for people, play, physical health and hope ❤️

Eat more doughnuts... JUST KIDDING 😂 except I really don’t believe in diets and have zero plans to cut back on my daily indulgences. Equally: don’t sweat the small stuff 😆

When it’s safe again... seek and cherish moments with fam and friends. Mum in 2020 🌱❤️

Check out my new 2021 reads beam for more.... In 2019 I made a resolution to read at least 1 book a month. In 2020 this went up to 2 a month. Can I make it 3 a month in 2021? I’m not so sure but I’ve certainly got back into reading longer books since I made this commitment. These books are on my list.

Be present when I’m with her... including trying not to be on my phone, something we’ve tried hard to do since day one but it’s not easy, especially since our nursery closed due to the latest UK lockdown. Plus we like to take photos and use utility apps a lot too. We’re very pro technology, and staying connected, but need to balance it with being present in realtime for each other too. 💫

A few year’s ago my husband and I started a “one in one out” policy for buying new things, especially clothes or books. Now we mainly get books from the library anyways.. but I need to stay committed to thinking carefully about purchases and passing on good quality unwanted things. These three coats are going to the charity shop today as I want to get a new warm jacket. The top right one is hard to part with as I got it at a cool vintage store in Toronto and it’s an Eastern Mountain Sports Jacket made in Boston MASS. But it’s a bit too small for me so someone else needs to enjoy it 🙈😬😬😬 today I also gave away our baby bath and sold a carry cot on eBay for second hand prices. Feels good to pass it all on!

Be creatively inspired by, and give out positive energy back to, my friends and coworkers. I feel insanely positive and optimistic about 2021 and I think it’s partly because I’ve received a lot of creative energy from those around me. This painting is by my friend and artist Lucy Stein (new on Beams!) which she sent me a couple of days ago. I think this is also what Beams is about, a lot of giving creative energy to each other in different areas like a collective stream of riffing off each other, which makes us feel super powered. 💫