Well that came around quick😯it's ✨MJC-mail!✨
Tattoos, micropigs, and 'what if's...
Hello gorgeouses 💜 thanks for meeting me for this catch-up! I hope you’re comfy, calm & able to enjoy a leisurely scroll through September with me 🥰
My body is holding some of her usual end-of-season fear - I know that the upcoming months usually get darker and sadder and I find it harder to be nice to myself and hold onto any feeling of purposefulness.
But all I can do is try my best to not catastrophise and take it a day at a time! Keep writing, keep dancing, keep resting. If you’re feeling some winter-is-coming anxiety as well, I’m with you and we’ve got this 💪🏽
And September?? She has been so generous and I’ve soaked up as much of her as I could 🥰
I got another tattoo this month!
Some of you were probably around a while ago when I surprised myself by getting my first tattoo (I wrote about it here!) - it always just felt like such an un-Megan thing to do. I was way too much of an overthinker, and that kind of forever-commitment? To something I might change my mind about? Nah, not for me.
But getting the first one was such a beautiful moment of reclamation - of my body and of permission to do things in life simply because they feel good at the time. I’ve kind of wanted another one ever since, but I waited patiently until it felt right, and here we are:
September is bae’s birthday month, so there was lots of love and celebration in the air!
I surprised her with a day trip to this beautiful spiritual well-being retreat in Chichester (south of England!). We did yoga, meditation, chakra cleansing, a sound bath, ate surprisingly delicious vegan food and Char had a massage as well. The location was just ridiculous (a glass house surrounded by water, like how do these places even exist?!), and she really enjoyed it, so birthday mission number one was completed ✌🏽
We’ve also had family celebrations and friend celebrations - I love the example that Char sets around the necessity of allowing ourselves to receive the same love we give out. No guilt, no believing we don’t deserve it; we should allow others to love us as a practice of self-love. And that’s what she did 🤗
In other MAJOR news: I have officially befriended my neighbour’s cat. He wanders in when the window’s open. He helps himself to leftovers I’ve put on the kitchen counter. We even took a selfie recently. It’s been very good for my pet-deprived London life!
We had a few gorgeously sunny bonus summer days this month, and one extra lovely one was spent having a picnic on Hampstead Heath.
My brain tried to pipe up and tell me that this wasn’t an ok way to spend a day, that I should be working, helping someone else, being productive according to societal expectations. But I resisted being totally pulled into that thought pattern, I breathed in the fresh air and let the sun kiss my skin. I had beautiful chats with bae about childhood and favourite snacks and what the future might look like. We took some lovely pictures and left feeling sundrunk and full. 🌞
I also got to fill up my friend cup this month when I took a trip to stay with Joeley for a few days!
We got piercings, built BTS Lego, ate lots of good food and cackled at everything. I am so lucky to know such a kickass person.
Amongst these wonderful moments I’ve been writing, creating content, I’ve recorded a couple of fun things with MTV and of course been home to take care of my sister as usual 🤗 a successful September I’d say! How was yours?? Let me know in the comments!
Should we spend at least as much time entertaining the positive ‘what if’s as we do listening to the negative ones?
We are so good at letting in the doubt:
What if I get it wrong?
What if they leave?
What if no-one likes me?
What if the big awful unspeakable thing happens?
But how often do we really let ourselves entertain the idea that it could go right? That we could win? That we could be happy? Or even, that we might be doing life exactly as it’s meant to be done?
What if you're getting it exactly right? What if this is how life is meant to be lived - with the pauses, and the uncertainty, the wrong choices, the "wasted" time, all the big emotions you tell yourself you shouldn't have...
What if this is living, as it’s meant to be done?
Just let yourself entertain that for a minute. Notice how it feels in your body. Allow yourself to have that sense of relief.
You deserve to hear out the positive what-ifs, at least half of the time.
💜
Transcript: Hello loves, your One Minute Reminder for this month is that it will be your time soon. I know it is so easy to constantly compare yourself to all these people who seem to be winning every day, having these major life events and these major achievements - but every person who is in that position now has had all the days running up to that where they haven’t won, where their work has gone unrecognised or where they’ve compared themselves to all the other people who seem to be winning all the time. You will have your time and everything that’s happening right now is preparing you to be ready for when it is your time. And until then, let’s just be actively happy for people who are having their time and who are winning, I think that’s one of the easiest, best ways to combat that feeling of comparison: let’s just be actively happy for one another. Take care of yourselves and keep going!
That’s all for this month! As always, please do share whatever you feel called to share in the comments: your life updates, something you’re processing, something you’re loving, a message for everyone else. It’s all welcome!
I appreciate you all very very much,
M
💜
Don’t be afraid of the winter darlings! The light changes every single day, the long shadows and low sun of sharp winter afternoons make us thankful that just around the corner, spring is waiting. Wrap up, fill a flask with hot tea (or hot chocolate- let’s be honest here), remember that the world, just like us, needs balance - light and shade, cold and hot, happy and sad, try to accept and even embrace each seasonal change and know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; summer is on the other side and future you is there too, with the sun shining warmly on your face. Happy autumn and winter to you all xxx
Your September sounds delightful! Mine has been fairly relaxed ahead of a busy term at uni (for work and studies) so as well as teaching my exercise classes I'm going to be starting my masters dissertation looking at how exercise and our relationship with our bodies (and diet culture) interact... I'm very excited to get started but also nervous about how much work I have ahead of me...!