A Summer of Slowing Down and a September of New Beginnings

I love autumn.

There is something about September that has always felt a little bit like a new beginning to me. Maybe even more than January does.

And this year, I think I was ready for it.

I went into the summer with so many plans. I always do. I imagine long days, lots of energy, getting things done, creating new things and somehow fitting twice as much into every day simply because the evenings are lighter.

The reality was rather different.

It has been an incredibly hot summer, and that is absolutely not a complaint about having sunshine in Wales because we certainly don't always get enough of it! But the intensity of the heat was something else.

Our homes aren't necessarily designed for those temperatures. We aren't really set up for that climate, and I definitely discovered that neither am I.

There is probably a reason I live in Wales rather than Australia, despite being Australian.

So quite a few of my carefully laid plans simply didn't happen.

And eventually, instead of fighting that, I stopped trying quite so hard.

My boys were home from university, so we spent time together. We visited gardens. We pottered. We did things slowly.

And actually, that time became important in a way I hadn't necessarily anticipated.

They left home as boys and came back as young men, with their own lives, experiences and growing independence. Whenever everybody comes home again, there is a little bit of jostling as we all work out where we fit now.

So this summer became less about everything I thought I was going to achieve and more about reconnecting.

It has been a wonderful summer in many ways, and a challenging one in others.

But September really does feel like a fresh start.

September and Full Immersion Breathwork

One of the things I have been most excited about is bringing my Full Immersion Breathwork sessions to Llandrindod Wells.

Throughout September, I'm running these sessions at the introductory half-price rate of £22, and seeing them actually come to life has been incredibly exciting.

And I really do mean that.

I love facilitating breathwork, but one of my favourite parts is watching people discover it for themselves.

Everyone's experience is different.

For one person there may be emotion. For somebody else there may be clarity, a sense of release, deep relaxation or simply the feeling that they have finally given themselves permission to stop for a while.

I don't need somebody to have a particular experience for it to be a "successful" session.

What excites me is seeing people notice their own changes and experience what their breath and body can do when they are given the space.

The Beginning of Llandrindod Wells Sister Circle

September has also marked the beginning of our Llandrindod Wells Sister Circle, which I run alongside Chelle as part of Mid Wales Sister Circles.

We held our first gathering this September and it was very deliberately an introduction.

We wanted people to have time to meet each other, talk, settle in and begin making those connections.

That, for me, is at the heart of the Sister Circles.

Each gathering has a general theme and we bring different ideas, conversations, exercises, meditations and practices into the evening. But they aren't set in stone.

If something really resonates with people, there is no reason we can't return to it.

We want the circles to grow with the women who come to them rather than becoming something rigid that everybody has to fit themselves into.

And although we don't base our Sister Circles specifically around spirituality, I also think spirituality can be found everywhere.

It can be in meditation or ritual, of course.

But it can also be found in sitting around a table with a cup of tea and a piece of cake. In a conversation with somebody you've only just met. In feeling heard. In laughing. In realising somebody else understands.

Sometimes it is simply in connection.

Moving Into Autumn

So perhaps summer didn't look quite how I imagined it would.

Perhaps I didn't tick all the boxes I thought I would tick.

But I'm not sure that means it went wrong.

Maybe slowing down was part of it.

And now September has brought a very different energy.

There are more Full Immersion Breathwork sessions coming, with further sessions continuing into October, and our Sister Circles will also continue in both Llandrindod Wells and Hundred House.

There are ideas bubbling away for the months ahead too, but I'm trying not to rush past the season I'm actually in.

Because autumn is one of my favourite times of year.

There is something about the shift in the air, the changing colours, the cooler mornings and that sense of turning inward that I love.

After a summer that asked me to slow down, September feels like it is gently asking me to begin again.

And I think I'm ready.

Becki

Visibility and Confidence Coach | Conscious Connected Breathwork Facilitator | Co-founder of Mid Wales Sister Circles

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