I’ve been dreaming about creating a mindful monthly subscription offering for most of the last year. Finally, it’s about to start, and I still can’t quite believe we’re here.
A year of sea and kindness is a mindful monthly subscription for sea souls – featuring sea-inspired treats in the post and online. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m so excited to get started. But at the start of 2020, like so many of us, I had to let my vision of the year go – including this new offering. Even though I knew it would help, I didn’t have the capacity to create and hold it.
My original plan was to launch something like this in the first few months of 2020, and then… 2020 took us all on a different path. At moments, I lost hope that it would ever happen.
Surviving 2020
2020 had an impact on everyone in different ways. How was it for you?
Over here, when lockdown hit, life filled with family and community responsibilities – all while managing everyone’s anxieties (including my own) and our shifting finances. My focus quickly shifted away from making bright new plans like a year of sea and kindness, to just about keeping my existing work commitments ticking over – and myself and my family healthy.
Over and over, when I felt overwhelmed, I found myself turning to deceptively simple strategies – like coming into the present moment and focusing on my breathing. To standing outside and grounding myself in nature. And of course, to water – and sea swimming.
Because the sea always heals.
When I couldn’t get to the sea, I found other ways to feel its presence.
…I watched the films I’d recorded for instagram. I trawled through all my photos to create our Inspiration for Sea Souls postcard prints. I made ocean-inspired guided meditations and shared them in the Sea Soul Newsletter. I saw the value of bringing the sea to those who were aching to be there themselves.
2020 has been hard for all of us – and for some, almost unbearable. It has also been a powerful reminder of what really matters at the heart of it all. Of the value of connecting more deeply to nature. Of the importance of kindness – to others and to ourselves. And of the power of hope – of having simple pleasures to look forward to.
Whether that’s fish and chips and Strictly (a 2020 favourite over here), or a scheduled zoom call with loved ones, knowing that something good is on the horizon can make such a difference.
Because when much of the future feels unclear, those little joys, those words spoken kindly to ourselves, those quiet moments of peace and reflection – are the beacons that guide us gently through the darker periods.
And now, as we step into 2021, I’m realising that a year of sea and kindness is happening in its own right time . It’s not the monthly mindful subscription that I had originally planned – or the dream I had to release at the start of lockdown. It’s something more.
Because of all we’ve been through this year – all that 2020 has taught us – it’s an offering with a deeper meaning and a greater purpose. And I’m a different person creating it.
So here I am, embracing the really scary bit where I share something new with the world and have absolutely no idea if anyone will respond. When I remind myself that it’s just like walking into a cold sea.
Take a deep breath, and step in…
What is a year of sea and kindness?
It’s a mindful monthly subscription inspired by our much-loved Sea Soul Blessings cards. Ocean-fuelled resilience, encouragement and peace with the sea as your guide.
Each month you’ll receive feel-good treats by post and email that encourage you to take regular time out to pause and reflect, to consider what you want and need, and to practice being kinder to yourself.
You’ll receive Sea Soul Blessings gifts, evocative ocean images, encouraging and inspiring words, and self compassion practices. Meditations to soothe and strengthen you, tools to gently shift your focus away from mindless scrolling, and a sea soul journal to explore. All the tools that have been helping me through 2020. And of course, a lot of sea…
And because I don’t want the challenges of 2020 preventing anyone from accessing some sea and kindness when you most need it, I’m offering three different price options. You can sign up for one month, a few, or all twelve. You can buy it for yourself, as a gift for a friend, or both…
I so hope that you can join us.
Whatever the next year may bring us all, a year of sea and kindness offers you hope. Regular warm encouragement, mindful moments of calm and clarity, the courage and stamina to persist, and the constant beauty of the sea to soothe you forward.
After all the challenges of 2020, let’s step into 2021 together – with a spirit of compassion and a deeper connection to the ocean.
You can find out more at seasoulblessings.com/subscription.
And if you’re able to share it with others, I would so appreciate that.