There’s often a quiet pressure that arrives with a new year.
A feeling that we should feel refreshed, motivated, clear, and ready to move forward immediately.
But if January feels slower, heavier, or more uncertain than you expected, there is nothing wrong with you.
At the end of 2025, I found myself feeling quite tired and eventually came down with a viral infection. My body left me with little choice but to stop and rest. It wasn’t the first time it had been signalling the need for a pause — this time, I chose to listen.
Rather than rushing back as soon as I felt better, I gave myself extra time before returning to work. Not because I couldn’t push through, but because I didn’t need to. That space allowed my nervous system to settle, my energy to return more steadily, and my perspective to soften.
It reminded me that rest is not a setback.
It’s a form of self-respect.
Since then, I’ve been much more intentional about protecting my personal space and time. For me, that looks like scheduling dates with friends, long weekend walks, and proper rest — not as an afterthought, but as something just as important as my work.
It’s been a gentle reminder not to fill every day with doing, producing, or achieving, but to leave room for living too.
After the fullness of the festive season, it’s natural for energy to dip. Focus can take time to return. Clarity doesn’t always arrive simply because the calendar has changed.
For many of us, January is less about momentum and more about recalibration.
This can be a month of easing back in rather than pushing ahead. Of listening to what your body and mind are asking for. Of noticing what truly matters to you now — not what should matter, not what you think you ought to be doing.
This gentler pace isn’t a lack of ambition.
It’s wisdom.
We are already enough. Nothing needs fixing or proving. And yet, January can offer an opportunity to gently explore what “enough” means for you in this season of your life — in your career, your relationships, your wellbeing, and your personal world.
A gentle question to reflect on might be:
What would it look like to create a little more balance and breathing space in your days this month?
As part of this slower, more intentional beginning to the year, I’m holding space through my new online programme, Awakening Your Inner Truth, starting on 8th January.
It’s an invitation to remember the essence beneath our experiences — to honour what has shaped us, while acknowledging the part of us that has never been lost, only waiting to be recognised and welcomed.
There is no rush to reinvent yourself.
Sometimes the most meaningful work is remembering who you already are.
Sharon
