TEND - My word for 2025
Tend:
To my baby (I'm not personally ready for him to identify as a toddler), my family, my garden, my clients, my offerings, my home, and—most significantly—myself.
Because if I don't tend to me—my needs, my nervous system, my very human body—everything else becomes a high-speed game of emotional Jenga and feels like it will crash down way too easily.
What used to come naturally and ease-fully to me (prioritizing my well-being) has become more complex with the addition of a determined, energetic, and MOBILE tiny human.
Feeling scattered most of the day, when I DO manage to secure the rare and elusive Pocket of Time™, I'm so fried, I feel at a loss of what to actually do in that time to get the most bang for my fill-your-own-cup buck.
Should I meditate, do yoga, meal-prep, work, or just lie flat like a squirrel on a hot day?
I wind up wheel-spinning, completing many tasks halfway, and scrolling looking for inspiration to figure out what to do.
Checking in, my inner voice keeps repeating: “Tend to you, tend to you, tend to you - fill your cup first, then move forward”
While I love the idea of unstructured freedom, my brain (and soul) function best with at least a LITTLE structure, so I've been experimenting with systems, routines, and gentle scaffolding to be support me in these moments when I barely have two brain cells to rub together.
Systems, Structure, and Habits that keep me:
Nourished (meal rhythms, bundling mundane activities with intereting podcasts/audiobooks)
Focused (learning how my energy waxes and wanes, utilizing project management software for my personal life, setting up predictable themes for each day of the week)
Aligned (learning more about my human design as a Projector, revisiting and keeping present the vision I have for my life, curating and cultivating my environment)
Held within the structure, I can flow.
The structures help me know what aspect of my life to tend next. I can flow, and not feel like crap, and not beat myself up for not being able to accomplish anything.
Those are some vibes I can get behind.
If you've been in my orbit for a while, you know I love trying out new tools and sharing what actually works.
Keep an eye here where I will be rounding up the tools and tricks I'm currently testing to help make this tending intention feel like a reflex, instead of another to-do.
Until next time, take few moments to close your eyes, notice your energy, feel around in your inner world to find a few spots of your own that need a little tending.
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PS!
To weave this tending thread through the rest of the year, recipients of my newsletter are going to begin receiving a monthly checklist dedicated to tending the following themes:
Life Path Alignment
Holistic Nourishment
Rituals, Rhythms, + Routines
Embodied Wellbeing
Conscious Community
Streamline + Simplify
I’ll be diving deeper into one or two of the ideas here, but for the whole checklists, make sure you’re on my list!
