On Moving and Fresh Starts

Finding "Mini Resets"

Hello♡,

I have been thinking about the power of “mini resets” lately. The energy boosts we get at the beginning of a season, or the end of one. I found myself planning and organizing things for my kids to focus on this summer (much to their horror), and I felt the energy of a fresh start. I love a new plan (and they are reluctantly actually liking their summer routine too).

Photo by Nathan DeFiesta on Unsplash

Many of you reading follow a school calendar, and many of you don’t, but we all share seasons of new beginnings. Even the changing of the seasons or weather, a trip away from home, or a new exercise routine can prompt the fresh energy of a new beginning.

I find myself grateful for the relief of turning the page on one season to the next because if I listen closely, it allows me the grace of redefining, or just revisiting, what is most important to me.

We all get in slumps, and I don’t think we talk about this enough. There is a natural order to getting in a slump - things are no longer new, and no longer require as much energy as they did before for you to engage with them. Things become automatic, and with that comes an ease, but also a natural sleepiness that can feel in moments like a slump.

When you are in the all too familiar, it is easy to be on autopilot about going through your days, and also about what is important to you. This is where the grace of endings, beginnings, fresh starts, and moves come in. You are forced, when something changes, even as small as the weather, to take more note of your surroundings. And you are also invited to wrestle with how you want to, or no longer want to, proceed.

I just moved my work office this weekend. And truthfully? I wasn’t in the mood, or headspace to move, and I liked my space! I gratefully had the help of my dear friends who were moving with me to take the lead, and I find myself here, writing to you from a new space I wasn’t looking for, but I am grateful to be in. A “mini reset” I didn’t know I needed. Much like my kids, annoyed at first about their summer reading and activity routines, I find myself liking what I didn’t think I wanted.

If we find ourselves in a new season of the year, of the calendar, of our physical space, or our lives, we can allow the discomfort, or new energy, to help us refine what matters most. It is a chance to re-prioritize, and to me that is one of the biggest gifts of change: you get to sift out what you got distracted by and re-focus on what you most care about.

Photo by Jarek Ceborski on Unsplash

An interesting thing about new seasons, is that we can also reverse engineer them to an extent, and make them happen for ourselves. Sure, it won’t be the same as a true season change, but if we need a fresh look at things we can shake it up by cleaning out our closets or drawers, re-organizing furniture, trying out a new exercise routine, or creating a new routine with a friend. If you are wanting to re-prioritize what matters to you, and leave what doesn’t, listen as you try doing something different.

It is often in the perceived discomfort, or fresh start, of the new thing, that we find more of ourselves, hear more of ourselves, and even hear God more. A “mini reset” is a chance to come back home to what you’ve always wanted to prioritize, and may be just enough mental space, or newness, to help you hear it better. There is a relief in “mini resets” that we often don’t know is what we are looking for. I will be cleaning out some closets and drawers too, breathing in the grace of starting again, even in the smallest of ways. What a gift that is.

With you,

Monica

(Note: New seasons are not always elected, and I can’t neglect the fact that many new seasons are full of grief, and come with layers too deep for this conversation, a topic for another newsletter.)