THE HEALING MAGIC OF JOY

Photo by Sean Wells via Unsplash

One way of relieving tension and releasing stress during this time is by taking time to sooth the self and soul. We can watch funny movies, snuggle up, go for a refreshing morning walk, find peace in a meditation, energise with an exercise class, bake-up yummies, listen to uplifting playlists, give back to a community, read magical stories in books and just turn the world off for a while inside. We can cocoon ourselves gracefully and nourish our self-esteem. We can play with soul for a while, feel less guilty about a little schedule sloth-like behaviour on the comfort couch or immersed in bubble bath. We can cherish the good things and bring serenity to chaotic times. With benevolence we can pause and reset – quietly and with depth, we can re-soul and frankly, feel a whole lot better.

Letting go of the pressure cooker of 2020 living and corona fears, we can breathe again – hearts open. It has been such an uncertain year, challenging for many of us. New normals have emerged and felt dark, inhospitable, scary, unfamiliar, shocking, stormy, urgent in their emergency, anxiety-induced in their chaos, morbid in their depression, unpredictable, terrible terrors and painful. The pandemic is a badass bitch and yet can rise and survive. The automation of jobs, digital transformation and economic fallout happening all around us has been equally unrelenting in it is sweeping change. The brave new world of 2021 on our doorstep is frightening, unknown, uncertain, unplanned, and out of our control. But could it be an invitation to something else, something better and beyond? Something our souls can adapt to and learn to thrive in. Something better to come. A better world.

Can we move through these feelings of doom and be present to what is emerging? Less emergency, and more emergent. Can we adapt to the future that has been here sometime, just unevenly distributed? Can we move with aftershocks in a new rhythm of tolerance, acceptance and can we thus as a collective, as a species, can we come back to life? Can we choose to circle through our hero’s journey with some cheer and sparkle, with heart, motivation, hope, self-help, wholeness, integration, integrity, and restoration. Can we come home? Can we be a tonic for a new decade and epoch? Can we actively dig up every little bit of faith, good character, humanity, neighborliness, depth, charity, connection, and personal power? Can we find our agency, sink into it, lose ourselves in reimagining new better futures, with soul, with God, with daily slices of joy? We must sink deep into the down down down below.

Can we move through, destress, lighten the load, find small islands of hope? Can we overcome, get some control back, make the most of what we have, take some relief and tiny enjoyments? Can we choose to provide our own reassurance, our own possibility, our own optimism and be our own self-boost? Can we retain some sense of self-sufficiency and take refuge and solace? Can we escape not to fantasy yearnings, nostalgia, or wistful retreat – but instead re-invent gorgeousness, beauty, truth and live a fairy-tale for real again? Can we satisfy cravings, find small delights, nurture those we love snug as a bug, glow, find splendour, be gentle, appreciate all that is lovely and unbroken, create bold new enjoyments and uplift our spirits? Our souls want to flourish and love and soar to the heavens!

Photo by Marko Blazevic via Unsplash

Can we be the helping hand we each need? Can we flourish, bring wonder, bounce, shine, glow, cope and affirm the good in life, resolve to rebuild, reground, be elegant in our simplicity, be decent, be extraordinary, wipe away tears, ripen, move in passion, craft a resilient response every damn day, thrive – can we carry on? Can we create new meaning, re-soul, find fierce new solves to old problems, dance in harmony with each other, be thankful and grateful and take pleasure in dwelling more at home?  Can we hug our own wellbeing with a recipe for cosy comforts and interior magic? Can we accept our blessings and adapt to the storms outside? Can we be our own safe havens, sanctuaries, nooks to shelf hope on, converse openly, recuperate, live more slowly and softly – can we re-calm here? That's magic!

Can we be sweet salve, light angels, comforting weighted blankets for the soul, a cosy hug for the self, magical remedy for lost spirits? Can we feel psychologically safe in 2021 and beyond? Instead of heading for the hills, can we walk bold under starlight and moonlight and let spirit soar? Can we shimmer like morning frost on a winter garden, can we bring festive sparkle and reverie to this sad season? Can we sparkle enchanted – soft as cashmere and strong as titanium? Can we choose to soothe our badass resilient souls? Can we comfort magic the shit out of this decade to come and imagine a brighter zestier future for the 2030s and 2040s, for our babies and grandchildren to come?

We will protect. We will prosper. We will deepen, ripen, age, and grow. Positivity, Hope, Healing.

Photo by Jennie Clavel via Unsplash

I began this blog back in April during Circuit Breaker (Singapore’s lockdown) as a resilient response to troubled times, as a search for an uptick in an uncertain year. It began with resilience coaching, badass resistance to new normal covid-times – it was about survival. I wrote in an emergency, and discovered through magic, herbalism, faith, psychology etc. how-to remedies of response. I focused on healing the self and being self-reliant. It has been badass, tough, a show of defiant strength, an FU to 2020. We overcame chaos and hunkered down the hatches from the ravaging rage of the storms outside. I have tried to being light in the dark, bring will to override apathy and despair. It's time to take back out power, our story. It's time to write a new future for our lives, a better future, a fairer one.

Now, as the year ends, a new way has emerged for me. Something that feels softer, slower, more of comfort, more of sanctum. It feels like an uplift, positive, warm, snuggly, gentler, happier, softer, easier – it’s just as magical, just as tradition and old-world charmingly familiar, and yet – more soothing for the current age, more coaching-focused, more therapeutic and less occultly, more domestic, more adaptive to a post-recovery state of the world, less politics and more heart. My blog is still hopeful, a warm blanket for the soul, full of resilient magic – and it is also a place now of deep peace, an invitation to step of the fear merry-go-round of 2020 for a while and hop onto the (up)swing of future possibility. To take a soul's respite and draw on all our own inner power as self-help magic.

So here at the close of the year, I will sign off on all things fighting talk resilience and resistance and bad assery. My hope is that 2021 brings remedy and healing - warm cosy cheer for all. I want all souls to sparkle, to be loved and nourished splendidly, to cope in this uncertain time with comfort and magical joy for life.

Comfort Magic, for resilient souls. Wellness for all. Hope, Heal and Live. Lean into love and faith.

Be well, be magic. Roll on January. I'll post less next year but will still be around checking in and sharing, writing creatively - every couple of months or so, as the healing continues, see you then. And until then, stay safe and Merry Christmas!

 Photo by Maddi Bazzocco via Unsplash