One Little Word 2020 | Light
The start of this new decade feels quite pivotal for me and one that has instigated a lot of thinking, gentle planning and visioning for the time ahead. Many of my milestones were achieved in the past decade, including finding a job I enjoy, getting married, starting a family, having a house to call home and starting my business. I wanted to share with you today my word for 2020 which is ‘Light’. After having reached many milestones over the past decade, starting a new one with the word Light feels like a way to help me generate a different way of visioning and intention setting than I have done before.
For the past 7 years I’ve shaped my year by connecting to a word and living with seasonal manifestos. My words have been an important part of my personal process of reflection, learning and connection to nature. My words have been Grow (2013), Embrace (2014), Simplify (2015), Awaken (2016), Thrive (2017), Nurture (2018), and Bloom (2019). It has been a long journey with words, and one that now seems very mainstream and something that a lot of people use instead of resolutions. I’m so pleased that it is a more popular way to look at things for the time ahead, I love being able to see what started as something quite niche, to something that is embraced by so many.
Each year I started to notice that each of the words I had came with a different type of energy, I noticed the natural metaphors that connected with my heart alongside the word. Eventually the words helped me connect to the seasons in the year and connect to a season for the time ahead. Without discovering my words my seasonal coaching business wouldn’t have had such a personal meaning and connection behind it.
This year is the year of Light. ‘Light’ came to me during an October day at home when in a moment of thinking I started to feel a little overwhelmed by things. I’d been thinking about the time ahead and the changes with my identity as a mum, a business owner and a soon to be part-timer in my day job. I wanted to feel less weighed down by my personal to do list. In amongst Chloe’s first birthday planning, organising her naming day, settling her into childcare and preparing my mindset to return to work, the word appeared. We spent the end of September in Portugual enjoying the light, the warmth and the time together as a family on our first holiday abroad. In the villa we stayed in our balcony provided a lovely view across our small resort and we enjoyed the almost endless blue skies and wonderful sunsets. I came away feeling a little odd as at home Autumn was taking hold and our holiday was quite firmly in summer. With the holiday I had taken myself out of the season itself, and put myself into a summer mood again. Light was a word that came from there, it was a word that started to make sense to me, perhaps for its literal meaning and how daylight varies through the year. I felt captivated by the word and after a few months of it sitting there I chose Light as my word for 2020, so far it has brought with it these thoughts…
Light connects with nature in many ways. Light enables plants to grow, the light of the days and the seasons change with a cyclical rhythm. Beyond the daytime light can be part of the darkness of evenings, through candlelight, fire, moonlight, and the stars.
Light has a physical feeling. I felt my identity shift as a working mum, an independent business owner and wife, and what sometimes felt weighed down with things to do. With Light as my word I want to work though how I can feel lighter in my new identity.
Lighter living is important to me and we are on a continual journey of navigating this to help look after the environment. I make shifts and choiceful purchases, I spend time reviewing what we have in our home and clearing space
Coaching is sometimes explained as a connection that helps someone shine a light into a dark room and discover something new that had always been there and not yet discovered. Light feels an important part of the year and how through coaching people I can make this happen.
Light is an important part of photography, either capturing it, using it and noticing how it changes the image taken. This year I want to capture more and have told myself that I can do this in any light, even if it is artificial light.
Do you have a word for this year? What is your word? How do you like to connect with it? What could the focus on one word bring you for the months ahead?