Before Everything Changed, I Did This

I have a ritual I’ve returned to every year since the end of 2019.

Back then, we were in the UK for Christmas. We’d chosen not to go back to Australia that year, so we could enjoy the kind of festive season where roast turkey and fairy lights on the tree make sense. (Seriously, Christmas pudding in the heat is slightly weird).

And it was in that strange liminal space between Christmas and New Year, I felt it.

Heaviness.

Everything in my system felt tight, frayed, a little raw. I was irritable. Cross with Greg. Snapping at the kids. Crying at the drop of a hat.

And at the same time, New Year was approaching. I should have been feeling excited, energised, ready to plan and dream.

But I wasn’t. I felt stuck. 

So I started where I was. 

Heavy.

And while I wanted to charge off on a retreat by myself, as a Mum with no wider family support it wasn’t really possible.  

So I did my first "Alongside Retreat”.  A sacred retreat vibe, alongside normal life.

It was basically a few mornings and evenings of quiet. 

And I started with something I now call my Emotional Audit.

I sat with my journal and gently asked myself a series of questions to identify what I was still carrying from the year that was.

I unpacked the highs and the lows, and the lessons learned.  

And I noticed what I was pretending I’d let go of, but actually hadn’t.

Some of it was recent, but some of it had been hanging around for years.  And all of it was still lodged in my nervous system and interfering with my pathfinding!

Then I moved into what I now call Emotional Hygiene.

It’s a simple set of practices to help me let go. Gently. Consciously. Once you clear it out of your nervous system, everything shifts. 

And from that place of peace, clarity, and deep connection, I could finally hear the whisperings of my heart.

I believe our soul (or Source, God, the universe…whatever language resonates for you) is always whispering to us.

But when our emotions are all clogged up with fear, resentment, grief, guilt… we can’t hear it. Not really. Not in the noise.

So, once I’d cleared the space, I could feel what the year was asking of me. And from there, I made my plan.

It was just before COVID hit.

I’d written things like:

• We will reach thousands more people with our work this year in more countries.
• I am ready for our most profitable year ever.
• I want to spend more time with the kids.

And somehow, all of it came to pass.

The One Woman Conference went online and reached 3,000 women.  By September we’d connected with women in 40+ countries.

We had our most profitable year, even after, in March, we were speaking to a bankruptcy lawyer with the fear that without events we would not be able to survive.

And time with the kids? Well… lockdown took care of that in a way I couldn’t have predicted.

None of it looked how I expected.

But the essence of it all was right there in those notebooks.

What I’d tapped into was my Sorceress PowerType.

The part of me that knows how to co-create with the unknown. She knows clarity doesn’t come from control, but from presence. From truth. From stillness.

That’s why I do this ritual every year.

I sit down.
I do my Emotional Audit.
I clear the weight of the past.
I return to neutral.
And then… magic happens.

Plans emerge that feel true.
Ideas arrive that feel light.
The year ahead feels like something I’m co-creating, not just surviving.

It’s a sacred, simple process that I now do with our community. But it started as something I did, quietly, on my own, at my little tiny desk in my bedroom by candle-light, while everyone else was still asleep.

And it changed everything.

Because sometimes the real work isn’t charging ahead with a plan.

It’s pausing long enough to hear what’s calling you forward.

If you love the idea of setting your intentions for 2026 from a place of clarity and alignment, I’d love to invite you to join me for Reset & Ready, a live 2-hour workshop to release the emotional weight of 2025 and create an aligned, soul-led plan for the year ahead.

Together, we’ll let go of what’s no longer serving us, connect to our deepest sense of purpose, and set intentions that truly reflect what we want from the year ahead. It’s the perfect way to start the year feeling inspired, focused, and in flow.