Ooh, happy move to Manchester Anne, I loved it there - great vibe. We loved Manchester for vibe/culture/coolness and Leeds is fabulous for shopping! I thought of you as, for once, I showed off about my audaciousness in my new year post yesterday. I felt a bit nervous sending out something so personal - my journey from being in care to running a successful natural health business even with a crappity chronic illness like MCAS - but I've had such a lot of lovely comments emailed to me after it, I'm glad I did it now. Even I was surprised at my own audaciousness over the years, to be honest! My word of the year is creativity. Happy 25th anniversary to me! https://micki839086.substack.com/p/25-years-of-purehealth-clinic
Hi Micki—I’m so glad that you found being more open and vulnerable in your writing a rewarding experience. I certainly have as well. The world needs more vulnerability from all of us, I think!
Congratulations on your hard work and achievements! My word for 2025 is Discovery as I move to Barcelona on Feb 3 and also begin a new year in a new city and new country. After these past couple of years of divorce, caregiving and the grief of losing my mom to dementia, I chose to move to Barcelona where my eldest daughter lives (the younger in Paris). Excited for all I will discover while holding center—which I wrote about on my Substack last week.😀
Hi Amy--So great to hear from you. Discovery is a great word! How exciting that you are getting ready for your big move. And I LOVE that your moving to where your daughter is. Mine is still in college so who knows where she will end up. But it may be Paris. She just spent the semester there and was enraptured. What does your daugther do in Paris, if I may ask?
My word for this year is “flow.” I feel like I’m a visionary but where I get tripped up is trying to have unhealthy control over making that exact vision come to fruition. I’ve been looking back a lot and realizing that the visions I’ve had in the past have been stepping stones to make me into the healthier, whole person I am now. They weren’t necessarily stand alone moments for themselves like I envisioned. So I’m committed to putting my head down to focus on the work to fulfill the visions and dreams I have in my head, but I’m trusting that the flow of the universe will lead me where I need to be. That every no is a redirection to the right place at the right time to receive the yeses I’m meant to receive.
I think my word for 2025 is actually a phrase: Quantum Contentment.
I now understand through all the pain, fear, worry and then the opening, learning, accepting and surrendering, that I am just a part of all the energy of the universe. I share this energy in every cell of my body and mind and soul connection. I see that there is a quantum piece to this energy in time and space that encompasses all of us even though we are individuals. It therefore allows me to know that as I deeply trust my intuition and stay in a balanced energy state - away from the monkey mind and society's values, that NOW is the time for me to trust and create and deeply connect to what it is that my purpose is during this life. I am still working thru some confusion in my upcoming choices, but completely ready for roots again in a tangible sense. I am now very sure that it is all there for me to discover. Everything I have ever needed for guidance has always been inside me. I am on the path to all that I was ever meant to shine upon the world in small and big ways.
Congratulations on the move to Manchester! That sounds very sane and wonderful.
Your word "deeper" reminds me of Amy Hoppock's Substack letter "Smaller & Deeper." Have you read it yet? Recommended! :-)
I love reading the other words for the year in the comments. This year, I've noticed that I meet only silence when I ask myself if I want a word this year. I suppose that means it's something like "Shhhh" -- except without the imperative or directive quality. So no word at all feels like a word. I have no idea where *this* will take me! :-)
Happy new year! Congratulations on deciding to settle in one place, and best wishes for the resettlement.
I’m not sure what this year holds for me (except for turning 60), but it feels like something momentous is ahead. It started brewing last year, when I began feeling ready for a new phase in my life and almost impatient to get on with it. As I think about this, my word for the year must be FORWARD. Here we go.
Yet another exciting adventure for you! I can imagine the commute was becoming tiresome, and I see that your body let you know it! (They have a way of doing that, don't they?!?).
I really think I would like to also use the word DEEPER for my 2025 word. Now that I'm (mostly) settled into my apartment in Virginia (just have to hang up pictures and put little things away), I want to start diving deep into this new life. I cannot WAIT to go exploring and to see all of the wonderful historic sites around this area and beyond. The entire east coast has opened up for me and I'm so very excited to explore it.
But I also want to dive deeper into my writing. I feel like I am only scratching the surface sometimes, using the easy, familiar turn of phrase instead of calling upon my creativity to come up with richer, bolder imagery, or not exploring deeper themes in my work.
I'm so very thankful that I started following your journey. I know it hasn't been easy, but you have inspired so many of us to start our own Life 2.0! I mean, I'm in VIRGINIA now, living a lifelong dream, partly because of YOU! So, THANK YOU!!!
Oh, Melissa, your words are always a delight to read. I’m so glad that my own words have helped you to take the leap and seek your joy. :) I love what you say about writing more deeply. I feel the same way. Thank you for articulating that! And enjoy your new state!
Oh, how I love reading about your adventures! UNFOLDING. That's the word that comes to me when I think of you in your world in 2025, and I look forward to hearing more. I don't know why, but I am so invested in your journey. It's fascinating. Thank you for taking us along. Best wishes to you in Manchester!
The word that expresses me in 2025, I hope, will be STEADY. I've set so many things in motion that are now coming to fruition. My goal is to ride them like they're a wave coming at me and remain upright. The upcoming release of my first novel will take me deeper into the publishing world. I can already see how this will require me to me to be more intentional about how I spend my time and energy, but I don't think I could be more excited about it!
Hello Nancy! Thank you! I love the work UNFOLDING. That is just beautiful. And STEADY sounds perfect for you this year! May you hang on and ride that wave!!
I can certainly identify with the moving part, Anne, and the desire to be fully in one place, rather than partly in two. I'll be moving this summer to join my partner in Iowa after a couple of years of distance. I'm ready! I love your words for 2024 and this year (I don't have one of mine for the year). I tend to think of opening and deepening as a bit like breathing, one expands, the other deepens (although an in breath does both those things, so I'm not sure about my analogy there!). Anyway, here's to deeper in 2025:).
Hi Emily! I like your association of opening and deepening with breathing! I’ve been focusing more on the breath, so I’m going to think about those words while I do so (when I’m meditating). So thank you!!
Welcome to Manchester too, my home city! If you need any suggestions of what to do, where to go, including hidden secrets, I'd be happy to help. As a UNESCO City of Literature, Manchester couldn't be a more appropriate place for you to be.
Welcome to Manchester - all the benefits of a city without the overwhelm of London. If you live in the suburbs you can be in the city in an hour one way and walking in the Peak District or on the beach at the coast the other and that is just brilliant. I look forward to reading about where you settle. I think my word of the year might be EMERGE - after a difficult perimenopause few years Im slowly getting things back on track and feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon - awaiting my butterfly moment 😁
Emerge is a wonderful word!! I have thought that being outside the city could be a wonderful choice. For my first year I’ll stay in the city to be close to the university. But I’m excited to explore the areas about Manchester. Is that where you live?
Yes I’m in Atrincham I moved from London to here 18 years ago to be with a man I’d just met in France so I know about making big moves - fortunately it all worked out! Altrincham is a lovely area with a market and great restaurants and parks but it’s got very expensive to live here in recent years - great access to everywhere though. Hope your move goes smoothly.
How exciting that you're moving and going deeper in so man ways Anne. You continue to inspire us to grow in our own lives. The word RELEASE keeps coming up for me for the start of the year. In a way this makes me laugh because I have so much I want to let go of that it's an obvious, almost cliche, word - but I'm going with it. One day at a time I will release what is no longer serving me! xox
I like the word 'release', too, Donna, but I'm thinking about it for my life in terms of feeling free to be myself and releasing the tight grip that being acceptable has on me. Being acceptable isn't the same as being accepted, after all!
Jan, you nailed it. It's about releasing the invisible ties that keep us bound to the conditioning we did not choose. The imprint that is laid down by our culture and upbringing - sometimes we don't even recognize how it's impacting us. These are the ties I want to release. I think that, as you said, there is freedom on the other side💕
Beautiful, Donna!! Release is an amazing word! I’ve been using it too lately, come to think of it, or simply LET GO. Letting go of some things so that I can go deeper into the things that matter most. I released a ton of stuff from my old life, so I know it can be a very challenging process. Best of luck to you!!
You ladies have inspired me to work on two things in 2025. I grew up in the 50s with little support to do what I wanted. But I had stopped my music and writing. So as this year starts with my birthday tomorrow i'm going to pick up my music and writing both and take them farther. I love your enthusiasm. As my mother used to say, "Onward and upward."
Happy 2025, Anne..! I have made a big commitment to a 6 month intensive memoir course, with Brooke Warner. So I am diving deep as well. Perhaps my word for 2025 is COMMIT... It is scary. But at this point, I have no choice... 📘
Ooh, happy move to Manchester Anne, I loved it there - great vibe. We loved Manchester for vibe/culture/coolness and Leeds is fabulous for shopping! I thought of you as, for once, I showed off about my audaciousness in my new year post yesterday. I felt a bit nervous sending out something so personal - my journey from being in care to running a successful natural health business even with a crappity chronic illness like MCAS - but I've had such a lot of lovely comments emailed to me after it, I'm glad I did it now. Even I was surprised at my own audaciousness over the years, to be honest! My word of the year is creativity. Happy 25th anniversary to me! https://micki839086.substack.com/p/25-years-of-purehealth-clinic
Hi Micki—I’m so glad that you found being more open and vulnerable in your writing a rewarding experience. I certainly have as well. The world needs more vulnerability from all of us, I think!
Congratulations on your hard work and achievements! My word for 2025 is Discovery as I move to Barcelona on Feb 3 and also begin a new year in a new city and new country. After these past couple of years of divorce, caregiving and the grief of losing my mom to dementia, I chose to move to Barcelona where my eldest daughter lives (the younger in Paris). Excited for all I will discover while holding center—which I wrote about on my Substack last week.😀
Hi Amy--So great to hear from you. Discovery is a great word! How exciting that you are getting ready for your big move. And I LOVE that your moving to where your daughter is. Mine is still in college so who knows where she will end up. But it may be Paris. She just spent the semester there and was enraptured. What does your daugther do in Paris, if I may ask?
My word for this year is “flow.” I feel like I’m a visionary but where I get tripped up is trying to have unhealthy control over making that exact vision come to fruition. I’ve been looking back a lot and realizing that the visions I’ve had in the past have been stepping stones to make me into the healthier, whole person I am now. They weren’t necessarily stand alone moments for themselves like I envisioned. So I’m committed to putting my head down to focus on the work to fulfill the visions and dreams I have in my head, but I’m trusting that the flow of the universe will lead me where I need to be. That every no is a redirection to the right place at the right time to receive the yeses I’m meant to receive.
Lovely! I’m so glad that my post prompted these deep thoughts. :)
I think my word for 2025 is actually a phrase: Quantum Contentment.
I now understand through all the pain, fear, worry and then the opening, learning, accepting and surrendering, that I am just a part of all the energy of the universe. I share this energy in every cell of my body and mind and soul connection. I see that there is a quantum piece to this energy in time and space that encompasses all of us even though we are individuals. It therefore allows me to know that as I deeply trust my intuition and stay in a balanced energy state - away from the monkey mind and society's values, that NOW is the time for me to trust and create and deeply connect to what it is that my purpose is during this life. I am still working thru some confusion in my upcoming choices, but completely ready for roots again in a tangible sense. I am now very sure that it is all there for me to discover. Everything I have ever needed for guidance has always been inside me. I am on the path to all that I was ever meant to shine upon the world in small and big ways.
Congratulations on the move to Manchester! That sounds very sane and wonderful.
Your word "deeper" reminds me of Amy Hoppock's Substack letter "Smaller & Deeper." Have you read it yet? Recommended! :-)
I love reading the other words for the year in the comments. This year, I've noticed that I meet only silence when I ask myself if I want a word this year. I suppose that means it's something like "Shhhh" -- except without the imperative or directive quality. So no word at all feels like a word. I have no idea where *this* will take me! :-)
Silence is a response, too, as you suggest. Maybe its space and silence that is calling you. ??
At least for now. :-)
As usual you inspire me! So my word for the year is possibilities. Thanks so much for sharing this next step
Excellent word!!
Happy new year! Congratulations on deciding to settle in one place, and best wishes for the resettlement.
I’m not sure what this year holds for me (except for turning 60), but it feels like something momentous is ahead. It started brewing last year, when I began feeling ready for a new phase in my life and almost impatient to get on with it. As I think about this, my word for the year must be FORWARD. Here we go.
Love FORWARD!!!
Yet another exciting adventure for you! I can imagine the commute was becoming tiresome, and I see that your body let you know it! (They have a way of doing that, don't they?!?).
I really think I would like to also use the word DEEPER for my 2025 word. Now that I'm (mostly) settled into my apartment in Virginia (just have to hang up pictures and put little things away), I want to start diving deep into this new life. I cannot WAIT to go exploring and to see all of the wonderful historic sites around this area and beyond. The entire east coast has opened up for me and I'm so very excited to explore it.
But I also want to dive deeper into my writing. I feel like I am only scratching the surface sometimes, using the easy, familiar turn of phrase instead of calling upon my creativity to come up with richer, bolder imagery, or not exploring deeper themes in my work.
I'm so very thankful that I started following your journey. I know it hasn't been easy, but you have inspired so many of us to start our own Life 2.0! I mean, I'm in VIRGINIA now, living a lifelong dream, partly because of YOU! So, THANK YOU!!!
Oh, Melissa, your words are always a delight to read. I’m so glad that my own words have helped you to take the leap and seek your joy. :) I love what you say about writing more deeply. I feel the same way. Thank you for articulating that! And enjoy your new state!
Oh, how I love reading about your adventures! UNFOLDING. That's the word that comes to me when I think of you in your world in 2025, and I look forward to hearing more. I don't know why, but I am so invested in your journey. It's fascinating. Thank you for taking us along. Best wishes to you in Manchester!
The word that expresses me in 2025, I hope, will be STEADY. I've set so many things in motion that are now coming to fruition. My goal is to ride them like they're a wave coming at me and remain upright. The upcoming release of my first novel will take me deeper into the publishing world. I can already see how this will require me to me to be more intentional about how I spend my time and energy, but I don't think I could be more excited about it!
Hello Nancy! Thank you! I love the work UNFOLDING. That is just beautiful. And STEADY sounds perfect for you this year! May you hang on and ride that wave!!
I can certainly identify with the moving part, Anne, and the desire to be fully in one place, rather than partly in two. I'll be moving this summer to join my partner in Iowa after a couple of years of distance. I'm ready! I love your words for 2024 and this year (I don't have one of mine for the year). I tend to think of opening and deepening as a bit like breathing, one expands, the other deepens (although an in breath does both those things, so I'm not sure about my analogy there!). Anyway, here's to deeper in 2025:).
Hi Emily! I like your association of opening and deepening with breathing! I’ve been focusing more on the breath, so I’m going to think about those words while I do so (when I’m meditating). So thank you!!
Glad it helped Anne!
Welcome to Manchester too, my home city! If you need any suggestions of what to do, where to go, including hidden secrets, I'd be happy to help. As a UNESCO City of Literature, Manchester couldn't be a more appropriate place for you to be.
Thank you so much, Helen! Yes, if you have suggestions, I’m all ears. I take it you don’t live there now? (Feel free to DM if you’d rather.)
Yes I still live here Anne, if you fancy meeting up anytime, just DM me. I’ll pull together some recommendations and DM you too
Would love that Helen! Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you. :)
Welcome to Manchester - all the benefits of a city without the overwhelm of London. If you live in the suburbs you can be in the city in an hour one way and walking in the Peak District or on the beach at the coast the other and that is just brilliant. I look forward to reading about where you settle. I think my word of the year might be EMERGE - after a difficult perimenopause few years Im slowly getting things back on track and feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon - awaiting my butterfly moment 😁
Emerge is a wonderful word!! I have thought that being outside the city could be a wonderful choice. For my first year I’ll stay in the city to be close to the university. But I’m excited to explore the areas about Manchester. Is that where you live?
Yes I’m in Atrincham I moved from London to here 18 years ago to be with a man I’d just met in France so I know about making big moves - fortunately it all worked out! Altrincham is a lovely area with a market and great restaurants and parks but it’s got very expensive to live here in recent years - great access to everywhere though. Hope your move goes smoothly.
Good to know! Thanks! I'm glad it has worked out for you. :)
How exciting that you're moving and going deeper in so man ways Anne. You continue to inspire us to grow in our own lives. The word RELEASE keeps coming up for me for the start of the year. In a way this makes me laugh because I have so much I want to let go of that it's an obvious, almost cliche, word - but I'm going with it. One day at a time I will release what is no longer serving me! xox
I like the word 'release', too, Donna, but I'm thinking about it for my life in terms of feeling free to be myself and releasing the tight grip that being acceptable has on me. Being acceptable isn't the same as being accepted, after all!
Jan, you nailed it. It's about releasing the invisible ties that keep us bound to the conditioning we did not choose. The imprint that is laid down by our culture and upbringing - sometimes we don't even recognize how it's impacting us. These are the ties I want to release. I think that, as you said, there is freedom on the other side💕
Beautiful, Donna!! Release is an amazing word! I’ve been using it too lately, come to think of it, or simply LET GO. Letting go of some things so that I can go deeper into the things that matter most. I released a ton of stuff from my old life, so I know it can be a very challenging process. Best of luck to you!!
You ladies have inspired me to work on two things in 2025. I grew up in the 50s with little support to do what I wanted. But I had stopped my music and writing. So as this year starts with my birthday tomorrow i'm going to pick up my music and writing both and take them farther. I love your enthusiasm. As my mother used to say, "Onward and upward."
That’s so great to hear!! I’m so glad. Writing and making music are two of the most beautfiul things we humans can do! :)
Happy Birthday Beverly🎂 It's awesome to hear you're re-committing to bringing your art back into your life. Onward!
Thank you. I've had two teachers in the past that encouraged me and I hope to prove them right.
Happy 2025, Anne..! I have made a big commitment to a 6 month intensive memoir course, with Brooke Warner. So I am diving deep as well. Perhaps my word for 2025 is COMMIT... It is scary. But at this point, I have no choice... 📘
Deeper is a great focus for 2025. Thank you for sharing. Mine is Meaningful Work which I think is in alignment with deeper.
Very much so! Love it!