Grounding into gentle intention for March

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There’s a quote by Annie Dillard that I always come back to:

‘How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing’

And time and time again I always find that the more intentional I am with how I spend the minutes and hours of my days, the more joy and ease and presence I find in my life along the way.

February felt like a really hard month in many ways - I had a nasty bug that really took a while to get through, especially after having Covid for the second time in January, and I also navigated a bad flare of my chronic illness throughout the month too.

Heading into March I feel a little tired, drained, and in need of some gentle nourishment as my body heals through these setbacks and I’m very aware that it’s up to me and how I choose to spend my life minutes in a way that meets my needs each day.

And so, I thought to myself, what if I created a new gentle ritual to ground into intention at the start of each month?

To hold space for myself to prioritise what I want and need over the next 30 or so days, alongside all of the ways I already show up each day for my business, my relationships, and motherhood too.

So I asked myself: what are three things that I want to prioritise for myself this month?

My answer?

Time in nature: I love living in the middle of a city, having our favourite coffee shops to walk to each day and bookshops to browse and the library close by and city centre parks to enjoy with our 3 year old too.

But I have definitely found myself craving being in nature more recently and escaping the city a little for a change of scenery. So one of my core intentions this month is to try and get out of the city for a mini adventure at least once a fortnight - it doesn’t have to be fancy or far, just away from the hustle and bustle of the city and around a little more greenery than we’re used to most days.

Reading: Books are my happy place and choosing to curl up with a good book over mindlessly scrolling my phone or just rewatching another season of Grey’s Anatomy is always my preferred way to spend my free time.

On my to-read list for this month is: The Celebrants by Steven Rowley, Wild Things by Laura Kay, The Getaway List by Emma Lord, and Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman.

Feeling cosy at home: I very almost put ‘enjoy daily life in the city’ and a photo of a bustling coffee shop down as my third priority for the month but the truth is that what I’m really craving right now is just feeling cosy at home, with of course strolls through the city to break up my days too.

But I’m feeling really drained from back to back illnesses in January and February and what I want most right now is to prioritise keeping our home a tidy, cosy, gentle space this month so that I can continue to rest and take damn good care of myself.

And then I just went to Canva to find a cute template I could use and then to Pinterest to find three images to visualise my intentions for the month so that I could then make a simple screensaver for my phone.

It sounds so simple but it felt so grounding to root into my desires and intentions for the month ahead and have a way to visually remind myself of what I want to prioritise the most throughout the month too.

So here’s to hopefully no more sickness, lots of reading, and a little more time in nature this month too.

And what about you - what are three things that you’d love to prioritise for yourself in March?

Until next time,

Jen