What speed requires (that no one talks about)
After a long day, do you ever do that thing where you try to write down a few wins?
And at first it feels like... nothing? Like the day was just a day. Maybe even a hard one.
But then you look a little closer. And you realize, oh. Actually. That was a win. And that was a win. And slowly the whole shape of the day reorganizes. Something in your chest softens. Your breath gets a little deeper without even trying.
I want to do that with you right now.
Because I think there's a quiet kind of shedding that's been happening for a lot of us over the last 6-12 months, and it's easy to miss if we don't pause long enough to notice.
For me, some of it was big. Stepping more fully into a new role in my work. Feeling old urgency patterns loosen their grip in places I carry them like my jaw, and belly.
And some of it was honestly so small. I finally got snow tires. I had a few hard clarifying conversations. I buttoned up things at the bank that had been on my to-do list forever. Little actions that took fifteen minutes but had been quietly pulling at my attention for months.
None of it was dramatic. But when I drop into my body, things are starting to feel clearer, and more stable. Like my system has defined channels to direct energy through. It's not more bandwidth necessarily, it's less static.
So why do this review right now?
We're entering the Year of the Fire Horse. If you're not familiar, the Fire Horse comes around only once every 60 years according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
It's a year of passion, dynamism, rapid movement, and bold action. Heart on fire type of year. The kind of energy that doesn't wait around. The kind of year where things feel like they're picking up speed.
I am not a Chinese astrology expert, and you may or may not lean into this. However, I'm writing what I'm writing because I'm seeing the corresponding patterns everywhere.
Not just in myself. In my clients too, who are doing serious work, releasing old patterns in preparation for something big they can sense, but can't quite name yet. Also, in the collective conversations, and in the texture of how people are moving through their days.
Something is shifting. Can you feel it?
This review matters for your nervous system too:
When the speed of life picks up, we often feel pulled along without choice. We default into us vs. them, and win-lose physiology (fight or flight).
As we broaden our perception to include what's already supportive and stable, we can slow our heart rate down and shift our brain's default mode network from rumination to creative problem solving. We become more present with the myriad of options that are actually here, and the truth of our heart (to wax slightly poetic).
GREAT NEWS!!!
Amplifying what is already stable and good is the first step in nervous system recalibration. Stabilize, amplify what's good, do a piece of work, return to stability.
I'm inviting you to pause. Maybe put your hand on your chest or belly. And feel back into last year.
What did you shed? Maybe it was a belief. A role. A way of being that no longer fit. Maybe it was something you simply became aware of that had been in the shadow. That counts. Awareness is its own kind of letting go.
What did you quietly button up? What small thing did you finally handle?
What already feels good and aligned in your body and life? Maybe a specific relationship you've clarified. Maybe the way you're resting, or moving your body?
Is there something still sitting there, pulling at you in the background, that could be done in fifteen minutes? Would it feel good to check it off? Call the doctor. Make the appointment. Update that one thing you keep meaning to update?
Because recognition and closing those loops are their own kind of relief.
Your nervous system registers open loops and unfinished things as small demands. And when you close one, or even recognize one that's already been closed, no matter how tiny, you might notice your shoulders drop, your breath deepen, and a little more space open up.
From this clearer, more resourced place, we can move with coherent hearts into this year of bold action.