Returning to What Matters
A gentle beginning to the year, guided meditation
Dear friends,
Happy New Year! I hope you’ve enjoyed the festive period, whatever you’ve been up to.
I’ve loved having time with friends and family, plenty of dog cuddles, and getting out into nature. These simple pleasures remind me of what I want to stay connected to as we turn into a new year.
It’s hard to escape the messaging around New Year’s resolutions. There’s often an unspoken pressure to fix ourselves, to become better, calmer, more productive, more disciplined versions of who we are. I’ve certainly felt that pull. My inner critic has been quite vocal at times, telling familiar stories about not being enough, or somehow being too much. My own work has been to pause and remember something very simple but important: that I’m not bad or broken at my core. And neither are you.
It’s worth remembering that nature has a very different rhythm — winter is not the season for pushing or blooming, it’s a time for rest, consolidation and gentle tending. Growth comes later. Many resolutions are shaped by a sense of lack, guilt, or fear, and change that begins there often feels brittle and exhausting, and likely counterproductive.
In the Buddhist tradition, practice is sometimes called bhāvanā, cultivating the conditions that allow what’s already within us to grow to fullness. Rather than forcing ourselves to change, we strengthen the roots. We notice our good qualities, what we value, what feels true and worthwhile, and from there we can gently let go of habits and patterns that don’t support our wellbeing.
It’s helpful to reflect on the fuel behind our intentions. So often, even our most sincere plans are quietly driven by a wish to escape how things feel right now, towards an imagined future where we are finally more sorted, more healed, more at ease. That kind of striving pulls us out of the present moment and keeps us leaning forward into who we think we should become.
What I’m learning is to listen more deeply. To ask, not “how do I improve myself?”, but “what is the truest impulse moving here?” Sometimes the most honest answer is simply “I don’t know”. And when that not-knowing is met with acceptance rather than urgency, it can feel like a relief. From there, something quieter often begins to emerge: a wholesome, loving aspiration that doesn’t come from fear or deficiency, but from care. A wish to live and act in ways that are aligned, steady, and for the benefit of more than just ourselves.
We live in a world that keeps us very much in our heads, pulled into constant thinking, comparison, stimulation, and distraction. So much of life is lived “neck up”. For me, spiritual practice isn’t about striving for insight or self-improvement, but about creating space. Space to feel. Space to listen. Space to come back into the body and remember what matters.
Guided Meditation for Inner Listening
At the bottom of the page you’ll find a guided audio meditation to help you listen to your own aspiration. It’s available free to paid subscribers, along with new practices each week. Please consider joining me and growing this supportive community.
If you enjoy this content please do like, comment or restack this post — I’m very grateful!
Other ways to practise together this winter
If you’d like some ongoing support as the year begins, here’s how.
Weekly yoga classes
My regular yoga classes return this week, both online and in person. These sessions are steady, grounding, and designed to support your nervous system and overall wellbeing.
→ View the full schedule and class descriptions here
Women’s Restorative Yoga Workshop | Sunday 11 January
A deeply nourishing afternoon for women who are tired, wired, or simply in need of rest. We’ll begin with gentle movement to unwind tension, followed by long, supported restorative poses to down-regulate the nervous system. Alongside the practice, I’ll offer reflective prompts to support inner listening. You’re welcome to journal or pull an oracle card for intuitive guidance. At the end you’re invited to stay for tea, cake and gentle connection. Not to be missed!
No yoga experience is needed, and all stages of life are welcome.
→ Find out more or book your place here
2026 yoga & meditation retreats
I have two very special opportunities for deeper practise, rest, and reconnection to what matters most. The venues are both incredible locations, immersed in beautiful tranquil nature to support healing and growth, whilst giving space for creativity and inspiration to emerge. Book soon as they are popular, only one space remaining for October. Beginners are very welcome!
→ View retreats
I hope to see you soon — love always, Louise x
A short guided practice for the New Year
This meditation is an invitation to settle and connect down into the body, to root into a place of steadiness and inner knowing. Rather than trying to figure anything out, you’ll be guided to listen inwardly for a sense of aspiration, a quiet seed of a way of being that feels true and life-supporting.
This isn’t about setting goals or making decisions. The aspiration may arrive as a word, a feeling, an image, or simply a sense of direction, or it may remain vague or wordless. All of that is welcome. The practice is simply about creating the conditions to listen, and to stay close to what’s already stirring within.
(if you can hear my dog Holly quietly snoozing, I’m very sorry! Hard to find secluded space in the house while everyone is home!)
