How to make gentle plans for 2025
Morning meditations, realising I am not my thoughts, Substack posts I've loved lately plus something to help you reflect, dream and take action on your 2025 plans.
If you are new here, welcome! I’m so happy to have you here as part of this lovely, supportive community of mums. I’m Jenna, a mum of 3, a Coach for Mums and I live by the sea in South Wales.
Here on The Motherhood Connection, I love writing about:
ways to ease your overwhelm and cultivate self-compassion as a mum
tips on how to take imperfect action and live a life that feels good to you
the small moments of family life that bring me joy
honest reflections on motherhood
Every fortnight, I also publish a Motherhood and Creativity interview, where I share the words of creative mums who inspire me here on Substack and beyond. They share their words of joy, strength, creativity and community in motherhood and there’s so much wisdom in every interview.
I’d love for you to be part of The Motherhood Connection community, all you need to do is subscribe below and you’ll receive my weekly (ish) posts.
Let’s reflect, dream and take action
In my post from a few weeks ago, I shared how I was finding it hard to embrace the slow and reflective seasonal energy of January, how planning ahead for the whole year felt overwhelming and how I was just going to focus on asking myself what’s the next small step that I need to take.
Well, with the lighter days and occasional Spring weather (though this weekend has been freezing hasn’t it!) and knowing the darkest days of Winter are behind us, there’s a different kind of energy in the air.
A hopeful energy where we can start to embrace some of the ‘fresh start’ energy the Spring brings with it, which is such a great time to start making gentle plans for 2025. (I say gentle, because as my last post showed, I am the first one to get overwhelmed with big plans!)
So, with all of this in mind, I’ve spent the last few weeks creating Reflect, Dream and Take Action Workbook, which is all about embracing a slow & gentle way of making changes in your life.
This workbook will support you to:
give yourself the time and space to reflect on 2024 - the moments of joy, the challenges, the achievements and the lessons learned
dream about what you want from 2025 - the changes you want to be intentional about, the mindset shifts you'd like to make and applying what you learnt from 2024 to help you in 2025
set a goal, make a plan and take imperfect action - all in a totally do-able way
All you'll need to get started with this workbook is a notebook and pen, and an hour or two to yourself to really sit down and take the time to work through the questions - a cosy blanket, a hot cuppa and a candle are encouraged too!
Sounds good?
Then, you can buy the workbook for just £5 here.
(I’d be so grateful if you shared this with any of your friends who you think might like this workbook too!)
Morning meditation and journalling
I read this post by
at the end of January, all about how she’s started a daily soul practice and how transformative it’s been for her.This post landed with me at just the right time as I knew I wanted to start back up with my morning journalling and meditation practice again, so it gave me the push I needed to get started again - thanks Alice!
So every morning for the past 13 days, usually for no more than 5 mins (maybe 10 mins on a weekend), I’very been meditating - I do a few deep breaths, notice my breathing and try to observe my thoughts. Then I journal on what’s come up for me and pull an oracle card too.
I am not my thoughts
As part of my meditation, I actually imagine myself sitting on the bench in this photo above, at the top of Penarth looking down to Cardiff Bay. I imagine I'm sitting there with a hot cuppa and I'm watching the boats sail past.
Every time a thought pops into my head, I imagine that thought is like a boat sailing past, and this gives me some space and distance from my thoughts.
Some days it feels easier than others to see those thoughts as boats - sometimes there's only a few boats, sometimes there's too many boats!
This practice is so powerful because you are separating yourself from your thoughts, and you realise that you are not your thoughts and actually the real you is underneath all of your thoughts.
Connecting to your true self
Your true self is patiently waiting for you to connect with her - she’s behind your thoughts, you just need to get yourself quiet enough to find her, and listen to her wisdom.
At first, your true self is quiet, like a whisper. The more you take time out to listen to her and honour her, the louder she’ll become.
Being able to connect to myself like this, first thing in the morning puts me in a good mood - it's a piece of calm just for me before the chaos of the day begins and it helps me to understand myself better too.
Above all, it's a way of connecting to my inner wisdom and practising self compassion.
Extra wisdom and inspiration from oracle cards
As well as the meditation and journalling I’ve been using the Work Your Light oracle cards from Rebecca Campbell and Sea Soul Journeys oracle cards from Pippa Best.
I love using oracle cards for extra wisdom, guidance and inspiration. So often, the give me reassurance that I’m on the right track, they give me a nudge in the right direction, or encouragement to do something different.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from different oracle cards I've pulled over the last few weeks:
“If you are dimming your light to fit in, it's time to stop and start embracing the unique light that you came here to share.”
Rebecca Campbell, Work Your Light Oracle Card Deck
After I’d made plans in my business for February, this is the guidance from the oracle card I pulled the next day:
“If you have been called to write, speak or channel, this is your sign to keep doing it. Your work is divinely guided.”
Rebecca Campbell, Work Your Light Oracle Card Deck
And my favourite one:
“May your life be your own
May you trust your capacity for self-reliance
May your love and choices be limitless
May you reject control and claim freedom
May your freedom liberate others”
Pippa Best, Sea Soul Journey Oracle Card Deck
Substack posts that I've loved lately
- This is Motherhood - I loved this poem about motherhood that Jen shared, it landed deeply with me. Even more impressive was the fact that Jen wrote this poem while walking next to rush hour traffic on the way to nursery pick up! I always love hearing how and when mums write and create, inspiration often strikes in the moments that we least expect them to.
- Behold Her Holding - a stunning poem that I keep re-reading to let the words sink in. These words especially rung true for me:“She is an advanced radar, holding the tension of constant hyper-vigilance and emotional buffering. Anticipatory need response-planning. And extra planning for the planning before any “off” time.”
- My Journey to England - loved reading this essay about Annie exploring what home means to her, how living away from Ireland has impacted her and whether she will move back. - Friday Favourite #13 - Katie weaves together motherhood, creativity, the domestic load and links this to Adrienne Rich’s poem, Living in Sin. Such a great post and this part landed with me:“…we may love the people we choose to live with but take issue with the gendered role we have to play for them in the home. After all, the way we feel about our home has a profound effect on how we feel about ourselves.”
- Don’t Look At Me: It's The Year Of Medusa - a fascinating read about the history of Medusa, the themes that she stands for and how to embrace Medusa energy. - every little thing you create is worthwhile - Jodi shares behind the scenes of the creative process where she talks about the “tiny, hopeful snippets that gather to become a whole” - from one word, everyday things, the determination to keep going even when it feels hard and thoughts coming to you at random times.What Substack posts have you enjoyed lately? Let me know in the comments!
I’d love to hear your feedback…
I’d be so grateful if you took 5 minutes to complete my feedback survey all about my Substack posts and coaching offers.
Your answers will help me to shape my work going forward to make sure that I'm writing posts and creating offers that you'll find helpful - thank you so much!
Work with me in 2025
If you’d like to start 2025 by setting feel-good goals, taking small (totally do-able) steps, that create long-lasting change then just think of me as your personal cheerleader who is going to support you in making those changes!
I’ll boost your confidence by reminding you of your strengths, of all the times when you’ve done hard things before and how amazing you already are - let’s get started and make incredible things happen for you!!
I’ve got space for 2 mums to work with me in my Rediscover YOU 12 week one to one coaching experience, and also space for 2 mums to work with me to create their very own 12 week Bespoke Self Care Plan - you can find all the details for both of these here or book a 30 min chat with me to find out more:
You might also like some of my most recent posts:
A way out of the messy middle - January energy, finding inspiration, being intentional plus a quick favour to ask
Motherhood and Creativity Interview #22 - Stephanie Elizabeth
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Love this post, Jenna, and I’m so honoured to be included.🥰🙏 Thank you.