January: Listening Instead of Planning
January arrives with a quiet invitation that often gets drowned out by noise.
The noise of goals, targets, resolutions, and expectations. The message that we should already know what we’re doing, where we’re going, and how the year should unfold.
But what if January isn’t asking us to plan at all?
What if it’s asking us to listen?
After the intensity of December – the gatherings, the emotions, the memories, the overstimulation – our systems are rarely ready to leap forward. The body, the heart, and the energy field are still integrating what has been experienced. Pushing forward too quickly can feel uncomfortable, heavy, or strangely misaligned.
Listening is different from planning. Planning often comes from the mind, shaped by pressure, fear, or comparison. Listening comes from a deeper place – the body, the breath, the quiet spaces in between thoughts. When we listen, we begin to sense what actually wants to move through us, rather than what we think should.
Two years ago, when I left the hospital, I believed I knew exactly how my life needed to look. I made plans from a place of survival, recovery, and reassurance. I needed certainty. I needed structure. I needed to feel safe again, and planning felt like a way to regain control after a time when so much had been out of my hands.
I mapped out how I thought things should unfold. What I would do, how my work would look, the pace I would move at, the shape my future would take. At the time, those plans made sense. They were created by the version of me that was healing and finding her footing again.
But life had other ideas.
What has unfolded since then looks nothing like the life I planned. And yet, it feels far more aligned than anything I could have designed from that place. Opportunities arrived I hadn’t imagined. Paths opened that weren’t even on my radar. My work deepened, shifted, expanded — not because I forced it, but because I listened.
Looking back now, I can see that the plans I made weren’t wrong; they were simply temporary. They carried me through a moment in time. Once I was ready, something quieter and wiser took the lead.
January holds a liminal quality. It sits between what has been and what has not yet fully formed. This is not a weakness of the month, but its gift. It gives us space to feel, to reflect, and to rest into the unknown before it takes shape.
Practices such as Reiki, sound healing, meditation, and intentional stillness support this listening beautifully. They calm the nervous system, soften mental chatter, and open a dialogue with our inner wisdom. Often, what arises isn’t a full plan for the year, but a subtle nudge — a feeling, a direction, a single next step. That is more than enough.
You don’t need to have January figured out.
You don’t need to rush into becoming a new version of yourself. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stay present, grounded, and receptive.
As the days slowly lengthen, what needs to move will make itself known. Until then, allow yourself to listen. Trust that what is meant for you will arrive in its own time, gently and clearly, when you are ready to hear it.
If you feel called to be supported during this quieter, reflective time, I offer Holy Fire Reiki, sound healing, and my 8 Cosmic Stargates of Healing sessions. These are gentle, deeply supportive treatments created to help you soften, settle, and reconnect with your own inner wisdom — without pressure or expectation. They offer space to be held, to listen inwardly, and to allow whatever needs to shift or unfold to do so naturally.
Details of my sessions are available on my website should you feel called to explore further.
