Hi there
Well done – you got through Christmas!
What a mighty palaver for one day: the presents and the waste, the feasting and the expense, the creating and the clearing up…done! Now is the saggy end of the year, when we forget what day it is.
For me, it’s a time of reading and reflection, rest and hibernation before we gee ourselves up for the New Year. So in the next week, really take some time for yourself, please: You deserve it!
Scroll down for:
- Questions to help you wrap-up your 2025…and prep for 2026 (you can see my answers below)
- A gift link to my latest Telegraph article
- Picture highlights of the year
- The Twixmas Online Circle
I loved the Solstice
I have to say that my favourite bit of Christmas was being at Stonehenge for the Solstice: I loved walking in in the dark, seeing the lights of others also making the pilgrimage flickering on far hills. A sense that this is a homegrown British tradition stretching back thousands of years – our true heritage, something solid and ancient and real in the hurly-burly of modern online life. I leant against the archway where the sun was to rise, feeling the bulk of the ancient rocks against my back.
I loved the sense of a gathering; walking in with 20 old friends, giggling and swigging tea and putting the world to rights in the dark
Inside was solemnity, the muttering of prayers – peace to those in the East…peace to those in the North…all around the compass. The burning of incense. Gentle singing and chanting.
And then venturing outside the circle as the light began to flood the hills, crimson under puffy clouds. We could see for miles across Salisbury Plain as the dawn came, a promise from the sun that henceforth the hours of daylight would lengthen. That summer would return.
We sipped hot tea and ate buns and shared a blessing – surrounded by others on a similar vibe, a bit like a spontaneous festival. Then we walked back to our car and drove back to London to start Christmas. I felt a great sense of renewal.
Your time to take stock
This is a good time of year to take stock. I was thinking back over 2025; the Year of the Snake, supposedly a period where we shed many skins. As a prime piece of shedding, I moved out of the house I’d lived in for 23 years. How about you?
How to get perspective and make a 2026 plan 👇
I was thinking about how we might helpfully look back over 2025 and set ourselves up for 2026 – and then I found a brilliant post by Dr Lucy Ryan, my friend and NOON’s Cheltenham Circle host, to her coaching clients.
Her guidance did just that.
So I am borrowing and building on her list for you all here.
I’ve filled in my own reflections in italics below. So find a piece of paper to jot down your own answers….
We’ll also work through this at the Online Twixmas Circle tomorrow, Monday December 29th at 6pm. Join us!
Thinking back over 2025
1. Plot the year: what were the major peaks and troughs for you? Highs for me were our NOON trip to Cairo as well as our Wales retreat, swimming in Shara Pool on Dartmoor, the release of the paperback of my book Much More to Come; and finding a lovely rental in 10 days after our house purchase fell through (thank you, universe).
2. Score 2025 out of ten: Hmm maybe 7… all that moving was pretty stressful
3. Find a metaphor which sums up the year: Trust and let go
4. What was the theme? I will remember 2025 as the year of … shedding: So much stuff and the home where I raised my kids
5. What’s one project you made progress on this year? Selling my house and moving
6. What’s surprised you most about the year? What was the unexpected? I really like the new rental; it felt hard to leave the old house but that we take home with us in our people and our beloved things (for me books, rugs and paintings) wherever we go
7. How did you limit yourself in 2025 and how can you stop? Tried to live without fear and step into the unknown. Change is difficult and scary but also exciting once you are in it. Try and hang on to the possibility of things being better not worse
8. What one habit did you change for the better in 2025? I read the Natural Menopause Method Cookbook and did the Zoe App (for a newspaper piece. It’s expensive but it showed me what good looks like) and now I am eating way more veg, legumes and protein. Although perhaps not over Xmas obviously!
9. What is the one question/mantra you have used consistently? What would you do if you weren’t afraid? I’ve got 3 mantras:
- “Trust and let go.”
- “Everything is exactly as it is supposed to be.”
- “To remember that everything is connected.”
10. What did you enjoy most about 2025? Being in the Circle with all you wonderful Queenagers and feeling that NOON is making friendships, building support and growing all the time. Being given a T-shirt for Christmas which says: Worst. Ever. Handmaid. Makes me smile every time I put it on.
Some 2025 highlights in pictures
Let’s figure out what we want in 2026
1. If you could create a theme for 2026 what would it be? To be open-hearted
2. By the end of the year what do you want sorted or achieved? I want to try and write a novel, plus expand and solidify the NOON circles. Oh, and buy a new house.
3. Who do you want to BE in 2026? More patient, more calm, more kind
4. Who will you spend more time and attention on in the coming year? What relationship needs more attention? I am aware that my parents are not going to be around forever I want to do some nice things with them
5. What do have to believe about you and the world to have a positive 2026? I desperately want to believe it isn’t too late for us to heal our beautiful planet, I highly recommend the book Braiding Sweetgrass which I have been reading over Xmas about how we might fix it
6. If you were being brave in 2026 what would you do? Write that novel
7. What three things can you do to set yourself up to succeed in 2026? Create space and time for creativity; be more boundaried and focussed; be outside more
8. What new habit are you building? What is your deep practice? More peace and calm – meditate every day – a silent retreat this year
9. How might you sabotage yourself? How might you stop? Trying to do too much – be more deliberate and focussed about how I spend my time
10. What small step can you take in January 2026 to start the year with a flourish? Go to my favourite restorative yoga and meditation class every week and to swim in the pond everyday (or as often as I can)
Questions to sit and contemplate
I reckon the purpose of setting these intentions is as a reminder: Both of the enormous changes of the last year and the passage of time…and to focus ourselves on the bigger picture for next year.
To put energy into the things that will really move the dial for us – that will help us hit our Queenager peak power rather than frittering our time away. And to remind ourselves of what we need to do to thrive…not just muddle through.
And if you can’t make it tomorrow don’t worry. You can do it another time. All you need is a pen and paper: Read the questions and write down what comes to mind.
I guarantee it will give you a little bit of perspective on the days ahead!
Do email them to me as well (eleanor@noon.org.uk). I’d love to know what you are thinking.
See lots of you tomorrow at the Twixmas Circle I hope.
Much love,
Eleanor
P.S. Check out my interview in The Telegraph with Sophie Ellis-Bextor: ‘I have too many children to be a strict parent’ (gift link)
