My Month of No!

Hello lovely people. Happy February, hasn't it come around fast? I know so many people felt January was slow, but I felt it was flying past! Perhaps because I had no-vid, covid in the first week and then a weekend of dogsitting, two days in London and an epic birthday party (not mine) the month was filled up before it started!

ONEWORD 365

If you follow me on social media you will know that the word (or rather words) I have chosen for this year is "fill up". I felt a nudge to my heart around November that the word I was sitting with wasn't quite the right one for 2023. The notion of 'filling up' kept coming back to me. Thoughts about filling up

myself (physically, spiritually, emotionally)
others (through coaching, mentoring, faith, and generosity)
space (in my community, industry, mindset)

My friend Sarah came up with the tag a couple of years ago 'Fully Lou' and it stuck with me, I want to embrace the fullness of me, of life, of God and my passion and purpose is to help.

others also embrace fullness.

There are times (like last year), when I feel my one word is an overarching theme to look out for but not necessarily implement. Here I ask myself "where am I seeing this word show up?"

This year, I felt a prompting that this word was a partnership word. I needed to work with it, with God to enable me to say "I am filling up....". It is a verb, it indicates an action or a start of being. In my case, it indicates both.

Take Jan to Plan

My intention for January was that it would be a month of planning. In reality I didn't get as much done as I wanted but it was more filled with planning than I have given myself credit for! I think this was partly due to me deciding that January was my month of NO!

A Month of No!

In my bid to Take Jan to Plan! I also knew I needed to say no to some things. I am so attracted by the next shiny object, that I needed to make this commitment to myself. It turns out my month of no, took a very different turn! I did say:

No, to extra commitments - but this was more like pressing the 'power save' button on my energy than to instead focus on plans
No, to screen time - I had a screen-free Saturday followed by a screen-free week.
No, to negative mindsets
No, to guilt, when I obliged and did say yes to something perhaps I had planned not to

Saying no - meant, however, I said yes to something else! These somethings were all about filling up on good things! I said:

Yes to my energy - instead of the TV all day I had two sabbaths and a beautiful retro winter day complete with Toffee Apple Pork Belly, A jigsaw and a good read
Yes to my energy - realising it was ok to take an early night, say no, or push through when I knew it would serve me
Yes to plans - I did get some written up! A great sense of achievement!
Yes to truth - see my post here about how my mindset about having diabetes shifted. This also came into play toward the end of the month when I felt sucker-punched and had to stop my brain from spiralling. Yes to filling up on God, truth and also friendship...

Yes to Friendship

Saying no to too many extra commitments/obligations meant I could say yes to spending time with friends and making memories in the cold, gloomy month of January!