december is a portal

be strong, finish the year soft

instead of finishing the year strong, why don’t we finish the year soft?

I’ve always loved December.

For my entire life December has been a sirens call for the beginning of summer. I am a summer person to my very core. I love the long days and the warm nights. I love the humidity, the flowers, the summer rain, the fruit, the cold brew tea.

Now that I live in Tokyo, despite December having the shortest days, despite it being the beginning of what will be a long few months of unimaginable cold, I still feel that same romance and excitement. In Tokyo, instead of evening beach walks, its exquisitely prepared hot coffee in old kissaten. It’s strawberry shortcake and illuminations. It’s the Christmas decorations pouring out of every store.

To me, the entire month of December feels a little like that day or two before a long-awaited holiday. It can be both exciting and anxiety inducing. it’s liminal, in a way. coming from Australia, I think many of us roll our eyes at the idea of ‘the Christmas spirit’ and the festive season (for good reason, I get it) but I also think it’s a shame many of us feel this way.

The human spirit needs ritual and celebration and cyclical markings of time. December can be very intense, but it also has the power and potential to be incredibly magic and romantic too. Only we can decide how we want to see it, which view we want to take.

Instead of focusing on how exhausted we are and how much there still is to do, can we take the small moments of rest, can we lean into the magic and celebration (even if it’s cringe) and focus on the pure miracle of making it through another crazy year?

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This December, fall in love with everything you’ve done, even if you have a tendency to believe it’s not yet enough.

Celebrate where you’re at, not where you could be. Let this be necessary fuel for all that is soon to come. Fall in love with small pockets of romance. Pour hot espresso over vanilla ice cream. Add a cinnamon stick to your tea. Discover old traditions of generations past, be ruthless in creating new ones. Remember: the most important part is being here, making it through another cycle on earth, even when the odds are against us.

I know you have so much to do. I know you have done so much already. I know you are tired. I know there is so much yet to come.

This December, ask yourself:

Is there a way I could make this easier?

Is there a way I could celebrate myself a little more?

Is there a recipe I’ve always wanted to try but keep putting off?

A craft project I really want to play with, but always say I don’t have time for?

A handwritten letter to send, a story to write, a book to read from cover to cover in a single day?

An afternoon nap to take by an open window?

A single flower to display in a glass jar?

A playlist to make to remember this moment?

Can I surrender to joy in this season, in my own way, even if it makes me roll my eyes?

Can I learn to pause, take a break, and have fun even when I’m not yet where I want to be?

Even if I’m unsure of what is to come?

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Mercury and Mars are currently in retrograde and I’m feeling it, deeply. I’m letting it be a good and beautiful thing.

I’m feeling the call to read and study and sit in meditation and hang out in yin postures every evening for far too long.

I’m also feeling the call to go into the roots and bones of everything, to get clear on what isn’t working, what I want but am too scared to change and get real, really really real, with what I want to call forward, what I want life and work to look like in 2025 without wasting a single second shaming myself on how behind I might feel right now.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe December is a time to be taking action, especially if it’s from a place of fear, anxiety or lack. Especially if its from a place of what could have been in 2024 but did not yet come.

Get clear on what is draining your energy.

Get clear on what doesn’t feel right.

Get clear on what you’ve been avoiding and pushing to the side.

Celebrate all you’ve been through and how far you’ve come.

For the last three years, I have taught a Finishing The Year Soft workshop in The Daily Rest Studio and I am really excited for this years version which I have given a big upgrade after an incredible, but deeply challenging year.

If you are not currently a member of the studio, but wish to join us for this one off workshop, you are more than welcome to do so. I highly recommend it as a small offering to yourself as we move through the turning of the year portal — in my opinion, an incredibly potent time, ripe for deep rest, fertility and tending the soil for the year ahead, if we can allow ourselves to surrender, release guilt and not get caught up in the timelines of everybody else…. I (and the TDR community) would love to see you there!