Tori Uncensored

What a busy few weeks it’s been. The festive season has fully arrived, and it can be such a wonderfully exciting time,  but also a deeply stressful one. There’s this strange mix of magic and pressure, joy and exhaustion, all wrapped up together.

And at a time of year when the days are getting shorter, when all you want to do is curl up in bed with a hot drink and put the TV on, motivation can feel like a rare resource. I definitely feel it. I get bouts of SAD (Seasonal Adjustment Disorder), and I’m sure many others do too. I sometimes feel solar powered, if I don’t get enough sun, my batteries drain faster and everything feels a little heavier.

Lately I’ve felt a bit scatty, trying to remember gifts, cards, and all the little festive bits that seem to multiply overnight. One thing that’s helped is my To Do app. I’ve got a list called “Purchases” where I jot down everything: which shop, how many of each item, what’s for the gift boxes… It’s such a small thing, but when my brain feels sluggish, it gives me something solid to hold onto and helps me feel a bit more in control.

Even though the shortest day has passed and the light is technically returning, the next few months often feel like the darkest. I love autumn, the leaves changing colour, the slow transformation I watch from my window as the trees shift day by day. But winter feels still. Quiet. Almost frozen in place. Nothing seems to move until those first days of spring when the green returns.

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in making commitments to myself. So this year, I’m choosing to continue my journey of change. Even when everything around me looks still, I know, just like the trees, there’s quiet preparation happening beneath the surface. Roots strengthening. Energy gathering. A new season forming.

That’s what I want for myself: to prepare, to keep moving, whether in big steps or tiny ones. To look back only long enough to understand how to move forward. To honour the stillness without losing the momentum I’ve been building.

Here’s to gentle progress. To wintering well. To trusting that even in the dark, something new is growing.

And if any of this resonates, I’d love for you to join me on this journey to connect, to share, and to learn alongside one another as we step into a new season.