DO YOU is a focus year-round, every day, and ideally every hour. Something which is so giving to practice. For me, it always starts with: What do I actually want to do? In the midst of everybody else's needs, and all the different things one could be doing?

You get happier from it, also around other people, when you remember yourself, too.

Winter time is a special season. It is cozy. I stay at home more, I often eat more wholesome food like stew and soup, I cook and bake more, and I try to sleep more. Following the seasons and listening to our needs is such caring body respect. The most important focus in DO YOU will probably never change for me: More being and less doing. This is what is the most difficult for me. To just be, and to not always be doing something. In my childhood I was primarily rewarded for doing, so now I practice in the acceptance of the beauty of just being. 

I am good at prioritising spa time in the bathroom, to get everything prepared for Christmas, to cook good food etc. In other words: doing. I am not particularly good at just being, without getting the feeling that I ought to be doing all sorts of stuff. So this is my most important DO YOU focus, I wonder what is yours? 

My family and my star-family (friends) are the most important thing in the world to me, and they are always a part of my DO YOU, but finding space for my own needs, in our big family, is such a loving and essential part of being good to me, and to be a good mother, girlfriend, daughter, sister, friend and everything else I am in family relation.

 My DO YOU winter 2021 focus-points:

• Ask the question: What do I want to do right now?
• Practice more being, less doing.
• Check in with myself in the mirror every morning and evening, saying “hello” with eye contact.
• Draw a DO YOU card everyday, to do something good for myself.
• Sleep an hour more to give my body time for restitution (in the summer 7 hours, in the winter 8 hours).
• Take a nap all days where possible.
• Drink warm drinks and eat with the seasons (root vegetables, soups, stews etc.)
• Go for walks to get light and movement for eyes, body and mind.
• See a good friend. So easy to not get around to, yet so important.
• Prioritise spending time in the bathroom in the evening for hot/cold showers, body scrubbing, dry brushing, filing nails, listening to music, drinking tea etc.
• Less TV streaming - it is easy, but does not give me much in the long run.
• Most importantly: Practice doing nothing.

It sounds like a long TO DO list, but these are things that make me happier. As a small intention setting I believe that it is of utmost importance to consider what truly makes you happy.

I hope you will check in with yourself during this winter, that you remember to say “hello”, with eye contact, in the mirror in the morning and before bedtime. Life can be practiced at full speed, or be calmly dallied around at a nice and easy pace. It is completely individual, and no one will thank us for either. 

I wish you a beautiful winter, stay warm and soft, in heart and thoughts.

Sincerely,

Mette