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I know, I know, it’s only October. So why am I talking about Christmas already? Well firstly because my book all about Christmas just came out in the US and Canada (hurrah), but mostly because of these nine reasons:

(1) It gives you time to set an intention for the season, before the craziness begins, so you don’t get sucked into everyone else’s version of what Christmas should be.

(2) It gives you time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t last year, and figure out what a meaningful Christmas really means to you. That means you also have enough time to have any tricky conversations about different arrangements which might make it better this year.

(3) It gives you time to think about who you have really appreciated this year, and get creative about how you might like to show your gratitude. And it gives you time to figure out what might be difficult for you this year, and get support.

(4) It gives you time to make a budget, so you don’t overspend, so you avoid the January credit card hangover and related stress, and so you get inspired by what you could do with all the money you plan to save as a result.

(5) It allows you to spread out the preparations throughout November and December, so you don’t get overwhelmed as the festivities draw closer.

(6) You will have more time to make or personalise things, and perhaps even enjoy some mindful wrapping, rather than rushing to wrap a huge pile of stuff at the last minute.

(7) It gives you time to get into a rhythm of self-care, whether that’s something practical like committing to a regular yoga class, or a get-running-programme, or looking up nourishing recipes to see you through the winter, or something less tangible but just as important, like carving out some time each week for something that you love, or journaling daily as the nights draw in.

(8) It gives you time to relax and soak up the kind of soothing words that will carry you through the winter, reminding you what can be most precious at this time of year.

 (9) It allows you to reflect on 2020 and look ahead to 2021 before the Christmas rush begins, so you can do it with a clear head and a hopeful heart.

Need some inspiration? I wrote my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year just for you, and now is the perfect time to read it (with a very special free gift), or from any good bookstore.

Hello friend

How have you been? I hope you have weathered the COVID storm and are doing OK in your corner of the world. It has been a while since I blogged regularly because, you know, life! But as we come into the last quarter of this extraordinary year, I wanted to reach out and check in.

I know of many people who can’t wait to see the back of 2020, but personally I am not rushing toward December. Autumn is a gorgeous time out in nature, for wrapping up warm and taking long walks, for catching up with old friends and harvesting the lessons from the year.

So for the remainder of 2020 I am going to write a new love note a couple of times a month, offering a question to ponder. I hope that’s OK with you. Sometimes it will be a reflection question, other times it will be one to inspire you to look up and ahead. Sometimes it will be a deep question, other times, simply something to get you looking a little differently at the world.

To begin, today’s question is this – an obvious but essential question to begin with:

What is the best thing that has happened for you this year because of all the disruption and chaos caused by COVID?

Perhaps you’d like to take this question for a walk, or chat about it to a friend or partner, or pop over to Instagram @bethkempton and tell me. I’d love to know.

Beth Xx

PS If you are like me and love to use this time for reflection and planning ahead, but have become disillusioned by planning (because, well what’s the point when everything gets cancelled?) then you might like my brand new Perfectly Imperfect 2021 Digital Planner, which comes with an audio guide read by me, to help you distill the lessons from this crazy year and dream about what 2021 might bring. This is not your usual achievement-led goal-setting exercise. It’s more soulful than that, and encourages you to dream and scheme in the full knowledge that things might change, because they often do.

This planner has just been released and is available to buy here for just £7 (around $9) or you can get it for FREE with any order of my book Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year, which comes out in the US and Canada next week. To get it for free, simply order Calm Christmas in any format (gorgeous hardback, ebook or audiobook read by me) from any retailer and then put your receipt details into the short form here.

If you bought the book last year, why not get a copy for a friend, then use that receipt to get access to the planner for free? Just a thought!

What a year it has been! No-one could have predicted what would unfold in 2020. I hope you have weathered the storm and are doing OK. I wonder how you are feeling about Christmas this year? Perhaps you are looking forward to it more than ever, given all that has gone on this year? Perhaps you are dreading yet more stress and financial pressure, after the tough times you have already been through? Perhaps you are unsure how you will spend it, given the COVID restrictions, and any related health concerns. Perhaps you really need connection after a lot of time feeling isolated this year. Whatever you want and need from Christmas this year, I hope you will find ideas for it in Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year, which is published in the US and Canada on October 20, 2020.  

*FREE 2021 DIGITAL PLANNER WITH EVERY COPY OF CALM CHRISTMAS*

For the vast majority of us this past year, our plans have gone out of the window, travel has been halted, work has been impacted, our health has been at risk and much that we thought we could rely on suddenly stood on shaky ground. There was much about it which was tough, and for planners like us, it was disconcerting and destabilising in many ways. Our ‘perfectly planned’ version of 2020 vanished, and suddenly, like never before, there were gaping holes in our schedules and all sorts of new challenges in our lives.

Given all that has happened, is there actually any point in trying to plan for 2021? Well, I think so, because planning can be a creative and motivating act, as well as giving some kind of shape to our dreams, making them feel more tangible and possible. But perhaps this year there is value in doing it in more of a light-touch way – more like a hopeful visioning, whilst knowing that many things may or not work out as we expect.

The truth is, the uncertainty we have all felt so viscerally this year has always been there. It’s just that we built structures and routines and habits that make us think otherwise. The pandemic exploded so many of our assumptions, and revealed the truth that we never really know what is going to happen next. But that doesn’t mean there is no value in thinking through the choices we are making now, to make the best of things in the present and support ourselves in the future, whatever that future may hold.

Perhaps 2020 taught you a few things about what really matters to you, and about what doesn’t matter so much, after all. Perhaps it made you realise that life is short, and it’s not worth wasting it in a career you don’t enjoy. Perhaps it made you feel financially vulnerable, and you want to do something about that. Perhaps it brought your health into question, and you realised you need to take better care of yourself. Perhaps it made you realise what pace of life suits you best. Whatever you learnt this year, this is the perfect time to reflect on that, and use that information to inform your choices about the way you enter 2021.

To help you reflect on 2020 and look ahead to 2021, I have created a special digital planner for you, which is free with any purchase of Calm Christmas. ‘My Perfectly Imperfect 2021 Planner’ is a beautifully designed interactive PDF, full of thought-provoking questions to help you reflect on 2020 and look ahead to 2021. If you’re a paper lover like me, you can print it out, pop in a binder and take it with you to a favourite café. There are even three different designs to choose from!

It’s not just your usual ‘set your goals for next year, then break them down into doable steps’ kind of thing. It’s more deep and soulful than that, and it recognizes how so many of us had our carefully laid plans decimated in 2020. It encourages a more dreamy, floaty and fluid kind of planning for 2021, which inspires and motivates, but also leaves room for things changing, as they so often do.

To get your free planner, just order a copy of Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year from any online or physical bookstore, in hardback, ebook or audiobook, then go to bethkempton.com/Christmas and pop your receipt details in the short form there. You’ll be able to download your planner immediately, and start reflecting, dreaming and scheming right away. Let me know how you get on – you can find me on Instagram @bethkempton #perfectlyimperfect2021

Greetings from my garden, where I have been spending a lot of time lately. In fact, I’d go so far as to say my garden has been one of my greatest teachers during this time. When lockdown hit I was overcome with an elemental desire to plant vegetables. I think it was a combination of wanting to feel more self-reliant when so many decisions were being taken out of my hands, along with uncertainty about the food supply, and a desire to spend more time outdoors. Whatever the motivation, the garden has been a place of solace these past few weeks, and I am so grateful for it.

As I studied the backs of the seed packets, trying to figure out what to plant where and when, I was struck with the realization that in nature, there is no rush, but there is a window. A particular variety of lettuce might be best sown between March and May. So if you are in early March, there is certainly no rush. If you haven’t got round to it by April, there is still no rush. Come May, the window is closing, but there is still no rush really. There are plenty of days to find five minutes to sow those seeds. But if you leave it until June, or July, or September or December then the window will have closed. There will be another window next year, just not the one that was open to you back in Spring.

I think that is going on now. I know from your messages and questions that a lot of you are feeling under pressure to do something significant with this time, not least because you have seen lots of other people posting about their commitments to lose weight, or launch something new, or write a novel during lockdown or whatever. I have a couple of things to say about that.

Firstly, nothing beautiful is ever born from comparison. Creativity flourishes when the pressure to do what you think you should is OFF, not when it is on. The fire burns when the heart is attuned to something that matters to you because it is aligned to who you are.

Secondly, there is ebb and flow in all of life. If you were rushing and pushing and jostling and being super-productive before this, it’s not surprising that you are now in a lull. That’s your body finding balance. The time for output will come again soon, but perhaps now is not that time, and that is okay.

Thirdly, pottering can be part of the process. When I go on writing retreats to write long books, I spend a lot of time physically writing words. But I also spend a lot of time walking and thinking, tidying my pen supply, making tea. It’s pottering, and it looks pointless, but it is where the gold is being shaped. So perhaps your current pottering is part of your process, and it is to be welcomed. This is a very special opportunity to step back from everything and notice the details of our lives and there is real value in that too.

So if you feel like you want to do something significant, but things just aren’t flowing right now – or you can’t even imagine having the energy to think of something you’d like to do, just remember what the seeds teach us: There is no rush, but there is a window. It’s fine not to do it today, or tomorrow, if the timing is not right. But there is a window for everything, which will close eventually, so it’s good to keep coming back to things and seeing if you are ready yet. And if not, perhaps it’s worth accepting that this window might close, but another will open, because it always does.

I talked about this at the Morning Meeting on Instagram @bethkempton this morning. I have started a new daily practice of showing up on Instagram Live to answer questions you have about dealing with the uncertainty of what lies ahead, and reimagining a hopeful future. If you have any such questions, please just hit reply and I’ll add them to my list. I’m going to be on Instagram in the morning UK time every week day until all the questions are answered. You can also watch the replays on IGTV (just go to my feed @bethkempton).

If you want to really explore what this time has meant and could mean for you, and get a host of inspiration for life beyond this, don’t miss my new book We Are in This Together which is out on Thursday! (Yes, I had a big burst of creative energy and wrote a book during lockdown, but then I had a big rest, and now I’m back. Ebb and flow, see?) You can get your copy here(or herein the US/Canada). And for everyone pre-ordering it I am offering FREE access to my new writing course ‘Words Heal: Writing in times of crisis’, a beautiful new two week workshop to help you explore your feelings around this situation, and create beauty from it. If you want free access to that class (worth £20) just click here and fill in the short form after you have ordered the book.

Much love

Beth Xx

A book just poured out of me in sixteen days. I didn’t know it was possible, but there was an urgency so loud in this unsettling time, and it is done. 

It’s called ‘We Are In This Together: Finding hope and opportunity in the depths of adversity‘ and it has been one of the most important projects of my life. 

We are in this together. We will get through this together. And maybe, just maybe, the world will be a better place on the other side.

If you only ever read one thing I have written, may it be this.

It’s available for pre-order in ebook and audiobook read by me) here and will be out on May 21. NOTE: If you are in the US/Canada the audiobook is available for pre-order here now, and the ebook will be available on amazon.com from next week.

Huge thanks to every one of the hundreds of you who responded to my questions about your experience just a couple of weeks ago. I read every word, and your thoughts informed this book. We wrote it together.

I really hope you are doing okay.

Beth Xx

And the day came when the world slowed and started to remember the good things, like how much we need and care for each other, how the simple things matter most, how we need less than we think, and how a good book can see us through all manner of things.

I have seen a lot of people posting about ‘these uncertain times’. But let’s remember that times are always uncertain. Us twenty-first century humans tend to construct our lives to give a sense of permanence, forgetting how fragile everything really is. I can’t help feeling it would be a whole lot better for our collective mental health if we took a moment to remember that everything is changing all the time.

The impermanence of things is a fundamental law of nature. Things come and they go. Whatever things are like at the moment, they won’t always be like that. They won’t ‘always’ be like anything. There is ebb and flow in the river of life.

If you are finding yourself all at sea with the not knowing, this is for you:

Acceptance is alignment with the truth of the present moment. In this present moment, what is true about your life? You are holding your phone, or sat at your computer, reading this. Perhaps you are drinking a cup of your favourite tea, or you keep getting distracted by a fly buzzing around the room.

Maybe your window is open and you can hear cars going past. Or the sun is casting shadows across your desk as you try to get used to working from home. Or you are washing your hands for the twentieth time today. Perhaps you are at the hairdresser’s, getting ready for a special night out, or perhaps you just phoned to cancel your appointment because the night out isn’t happening now. Perhaps you have stumbled upon this post just after an inspiring conversation, or a big argument, or some surprising news.

Maybe you are reading this on the bus, with half an eye on someone coughing a couple of feet away. Or maybe you are in your kitchen with a sudden urge to nourish your family with organic food, watching the oven to see if your homemade pie is cooked.I wonder if you are hot, or cold or just right?

If you can smell cooking, or the garden or the impending rain. Do you have music playing? Is the clock ticking? Are you soaking in the bath listening to the sound of your own breathing?

Take a moment to think about the facts of your life in this exact moment. This moment is the one you are living right now. You cannot extend it for ever. At some point the pie will be done, the bathwater will go cold, the night will close in.

Accepting that we cannot hold on to or control the status quo is a powerful teaching from wabi sabi, reminding us to treasure the good we have right now, and know that the bad will pass.

Any time you feel stressed or worried, upset, lost or lonely, anchor yourself in the facts of now. Notice what’s going on in your body, and what’s going on around you. Feel what you are feeling. Know that this is just a moment, and soon it will give way to another.

Any time you are feeling overwhelmed, try to accept that what is possible in the present is limited. You can only do what you can do. This is not a shutting off of possibilities, but rather a recognition of your own capacity, so you can stop expecting impossible things of yourself and give yourself a break.

Any time you recognize a moment of true joy, soak it all up. Anchor yourself to the sights, sounds and smells of right there and then, so they can transform into a precious memory when the moment has passed, which it will.

Take good care. It’s going to be OK,

Beth Xx