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Hello beautiful,​
Happy New Year 2025! I hope this email finds you well, rested, nourished, and having celebrated the year past and eager to greet the new. Lucky to say that my own winter holidays were festive, healthy, peaceful, and fulfilling.

The idea of a Gentle January speaks to me, since it can take time for us to process the events of the last 366 days, our results and experiences, to get complete and clear about what we want to create in the New Year. We can start afresh at any time, but the liminal transition from Holiday merriment to declaring intentions can be a particularly powerful moment.

Thanks for being here with me as we cross this threshold, and I'm excited to keep creating ways for us to be together, whether dancing, moving mindfully in yoga practice, in coaching sessions, in-person, online and everywhere we may show up. The times are wild and we all need to support one another in building the positive possibilities we see for the future.

All regularly scheduled courses and sessions resume this week, and I'm in the midst of finishing my own annual reflection and planning process, with a related blog article to be released soon and relevant videos this week.

In case you missed it (and still timely since winter continues) here's my latest blog, a collection of warming and wonderful wintery joys and personal favorites:

​Read the Winter Wonders & Warmers article here​

My other creations, recommendations, and questions for you are:

Viewing:

• ​December BuJo Review - 2024 Month 12 Creative Journal Flip video on YouTube is a reflection on the past month of completion and celebration
• ​2025 Notebook, Planner & Bullet Journal Lineup & Supplies - Creative Coach's Techo Kaigi, Stationery video on YouTube is a "lineup" of nearly all the analog notebooks/journals and tools that I'm using this year
• Finishing watching "Queer Eye" Season 9 helped us don our gay apparel and make merry
• The new "The Wonder Years" series is also cute
• One last gasp of Christmas (I like how people celebrate until Epiphany in Germany!) with a fantastical exploration of the "Nutcracker" Ballet Costumes at New York City Ballet with InStyle and
• Ballet Reign "Nutcracker" story time (and so excited that this will be the next ballet Tanschule Tanzraum performs!)
• ​New Year's in a Cozy Loft ambience is hitting the spot as ambience for my end-of-year reflections

Listening:

• "What are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Song by Hayley Sales
• Interesting history of the New Year's Eve song. Scots, and Robert Burns' collected traditional songs
• ​Tarot for the Wild Soul January Monthly Medicine Podcast, always appreciate Lindsey's gentle and intuitive insights

Reading:

• Totally inspired so far by the daily readings from 365 Poems for Life: An Uplifting Collection for Every Day of the Year compiled by Allie Esiri which I began in December and am delighted will accompany me all year
• Finally finished The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley over the break and look forward to continuing the series as library availability and reading time allows
• Started Evocation: Book I in The Summoner's Circle by S.T. Gibson: "The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov. As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society."

Practicing:

• ​Dance Daily December 31 Days of Mindful Movement to Change Your Life concluded with:
• Day 21 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy birthday party
• Day 22 Cozy day at my house
• Day 23 Taking a little Mirliton promenade on Christmas Eve eve
• Day 24 Merry Jingle Bells at the train station Christmas Eve
• Day 25 Feliz Navidad! Sliding into Christmas in front of Petra's tree
• Day 26Ho ho ho on the second day of Christmas at Reiner's library
• Day 27Back on the foam roller leg beats in the air to "The Muppet Show"
• Day 28 Glittery Christmas present improv with my new magic wand (Benu fountain pen)
• Day 29 What are you doing New Year's Eve? at the doorway
• Day 30 New Year's Eve Eve back at my house​
• Day 31 Celebrating New Year's with sparklers and fireworks
• ​Intention Setting Yoga with Kassandra (1 hour, in 3 sections: Body, Mind, Spirit) is a balanced practice for this liminal time
• ​Gentle January Soul and Wit pop up podcast provides the reminder we need to take it easy as we enter 2025
• ​How to actually review 2024 from Struthless (and bonus, it rhymes!) if you're ready to take stock in a creative way
• ​Quick and simple end of year review for life and business with Amanda McKinney on the Accountable Podcast
• ​Getting life together for new year (anxious perspective) from Morgan Evelyn Cook
• ​25 Things to Declutter from Ecofriend Lia if you want to make space for the new
• ​Eco New Year's Resolutions from The Simple Environmentalist for small but critical ways to help save the Earth
• ​Jahresrückblog Annual Reflection Blog Workshop (Deutsch) von Judith Peters/Sympatexter was once again a wonderful support for my ongoing review process

Practicing Together LIVE / Adult Movement Classes this week:

• In-Studio Adult Beginner Ballet, 6-7:00pm CET Mondays, Tanzschule Tanzraum Nippes, Cologne, Germany creates a strong, body-friendly, and graceful foundation for dance (German)
• Online Yogalicious Gentle Yoga. 7-8:00pm CET Tuesdays (8-9:00am HI) provides a delicious mindful movement feast which balances strength, balance and coordination, mind body and spirit (English)
• Online Balletlicious Gentle Adaptive Ballet Barre+, 7:30-8:30am CET Wednesdays, consists of mostly barre with a little dancey centre work, building a strong, body-friendly, and graceful foundation for dance at home or anywhere in the world (English)

Inquiring:

• What's your January soundtrack?
• Will you move with me this year?
• Do you choose a word, phrase, or set an intention for the New Year? What is it?
• What do your end/beginning of year transition rituals look like?
• How can I support you in moving powerfully into 2025?

You're more than welcome to respond to the questions above and gladly provide other updates by replying to this email or on social media if you are active there.

I appreciate your presence in my life and would love to see you in a mindful movement class, coaching session, collaboration or other context in 2025!

Love, Blythe

Blythe Stephens, MFA, Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach: dance through your difficulties
and take leaps of faith into a joyful, fulfilling life

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