Notes from the shortest days.

The clocks have gone back and the heating's been flicked to ‘on’. I've swapped my trusty cap for a woolly hat on my morning walks and the last of the bees have gone for another year. We're heading towards the darkest day and if you work long hours, winter daylight gets hard to come by. In truth, it can all start to feel a bit heavy.

I’m sitting here, looking out of the window in my cosy home office, watching auburn leaves spin like ballerinas as they fall off the tree beside my house and land in the mulch. My dachshund is sitting on my feet. He’s already decided it’s too cold for another walk. 

The natural world knows it's time to rest, but for some reason the modern-day human has forgotten.

What I'm doing differently this year

This year, I’ve decided I want to treat the seasons changing, these shorter days, with more patience and ease. It never goes well for me when I push hard against the hibernation energy of winter, I just end up burning out, feeling low and posting about losing my mojo on social media.

I mean, who are we to think we can continue launching events, creating aggressively, juggling all the additional social events, training hard in the gym, getting up in the pitch black, jumping in freezing water…and not implode?

Outside of our professional urban bubbles the natural world is laying down its tools. The grass stops growing, hedgehogs begin to coorie in, the squirrels stockpile good food, the trees drop the extra weight they don’t need to carry. Yet we humans feel the need to almost, speed up?

I have mused over this in terms of professional athletes in the past - they definitely have a better relationship with the seasons than businesspeople do. They push hard during the competitive summer months, using the light, warmth and energy to drive them forwards; then they fall back and spend the winter gaining strength in the gym, loading up on good food and most importantly: resting.

Why permission to rest is hard to grant yourself

I've found that if I am resistant to rest it is usually rooted in an unspoken, unfounded feeling that 'bad things will happen if I stop'. Couple that with the fact that many founders have been running on empty for so long that it feels normal, and you have yourself a nervous system that is entirely dysregulated. In this instance stopping doesn't just feel difficult, it feels UNSAFE.

So how can we as female founders learn to give ourselves permission to rest so that we can protect our energy and go harder again in the ‘on seasons’?

The plan

When I begin to feel overwhelmed at this time of year, the thing that helps me most is a plan. Not adding more to my to-do list, just remembering how to look after my foundations. I love a simple strategy to protect my mind and body so I can get through the harder months and not want to burn it all down.

Habits are formed via consistent acts performed little and often, brick by brick.

I already know the biggest levers I can pull to benefit my mental and physical health (which in turn helps my business): movement, good food, friendship, my work environment, headspace, sunlight and rest. To keep these good habits in place when the days are short and the trails have turned to sludge I need easy, doable daily actions and accountability.

The actions

Move: daily walks outside, a bare minimum of 20 minutes

Fuel: weekly meal plan; easy, predictable family meals full of whole foods and lots of plants

Connect: see a friend once a week in real life

Space: my WFH environment needs to be separate from my home life so I can switch off.

Rest: morning and mid-afternoon daylight to help me sleep at night, plus the added bonus of time offline outside

Mind: a few daily sentences in a dateless diary to dump thoughts out of my body and onto the page so I can process things

The accountability

Some of these actions take minutes, others take longer and all require accountability or they'll slide off the to-do list when you get busy. In one study, people who wrote their goals down and sent a friend a weekly update were twice as likely to make good progress as those who kept their goals in their heads. Weaving in accountability and support when you set small goals is crucial if you want a positive outcome. That's why communities like ours at Fresh Air Collective are so valuable, you have an inbuilt support network and people who will check in on you. For some free support and accountability around getting outside in the sunlight this December why not join our Shortest Days Challenge?

Falling off the wagon

Inevitably you will have setbacks or barriers arise as you move through the next few months. It's a very human experience to make a plan and then have it side-lined by other unexpected events, but for me the key is self compassion and consistency. If I don't manage much sunlight one busy work day or I barely get 7,000 steps in, I don't berate myself and give up, I just see it as a slight detour and make sure to come back to the 'main road' again the next day. I reset and I carry on. 

A healthy lifestyle and business is not all or nothing, it's small, consistent actions layered day by day that get the best long term results. Learning to let yourself truly rest doesn't happen overnight, it takes time, understanding, self-compassion and above all consistency. If you’re nodding along and it all feels like too much, it might be worth talking to someone, whether that’s your GP, a therapist or a coach who works with founders.

Goal Setting

The above actions won't happen unless you set tight, clear, specific goals so your mind can't worm its way out of it (speaking from experience). Goal setting, creating the right environment for success and measuring your progress are all equally important and something I'm thinking I should write about in a future note.

For now I hope this piece of writing has inspired you to spend a little time thinking about how you could look after your mind and body over the coming months, so you can emerge into spring feeling rested and ready for action.

See you outside.