A tiny bit more about Words of the Year

in 2024 I decided my Word Of the Year (WOY) would be CULTIVATE and that was a fabulous word. I decided rather than selected it from my bag of words. I had to choose it and face the consequences. if it had been a dud word, I only had myself to blame. It wasn’t and I love that word.

For 2025 I decided to accept what came up. Last year I was at a wonderful restorative yoga* class where we chose a WOY as part of the class. I told myself that this wasn’t going to be my actual WOY because I chose MY WOY differently. The word I chose, RELEASE, was rather resonant, but I put off claiming it because…well because why?

So many becauses! I was learning two things I could practise releasing right then and there: conditional living and perfectionism.

These are some of my examples of conditional living: I’ll relax when I’ve cleared up this mess….I’ll head to the studio when I have a few hours to work there….I’ll get back into exercising after things are less busy….I’ll be happy when this, that, or the other thing is sorted and resolved…I’ll choose my word of the year when the planets are in alignment, the moon is blue, the candle flame is at one cm etc etc.

I’m exaggerating. A little. But sometimes I put a lot of conditions on things and that shifts my focus to a vague, potentially perfect future rather than the actually occurring, imperfect now…and that doesn’t work for long.

Conditional living’s close cousin (in my case) is perfectionism. It shows up like this: Perhaps I could choose a word better than RELEASE. More perfect. Less clichéd and new age-y. Deeper. I could go on and on.

Fortunately, I woke up pretty fast to what was happening in my head, and I knew that I had to embrace RELEASE. I knew that it would be a juicy, useful word for me.

It’s only February and RELEASE is teaching me a lot!

I know from experience that if I reconnect regularly with my WOY, I learn a lot about my self and my finite, imperfect life. in 2025, I know I will discover things it will help me to release and new ways to understand releasing. The secret will be in remembering the word.

And having some reminders (like a Word of the Year Mini Retreat!) can really help.

This year I am combining my love for making amulets and vessels with my passion for Words of the Year. My younger daughter Jen (*the teacher of that wonderful restorative yoga class) and I have created a mini retreat to explore words of the year and help a group of women to create lovely, tiny vessels.

Each vessel will be beautiful, functional and unique. People can keep their chosen (or decided!) word in it or…do something totally different with them. Either way, we hope people have a wonderful, playful, reflective and creative afternoon!! With yummy snacks.