Joy Reclamation with Emma Woodford

I was in Gateshead this week for work. Dinner, then a night out after…everyone getting steadily more merry, which isn’t really my scene these days. I’d forgotten how draining being the sober introvert in a loud room til gone midnight actually is.
I said before dinner I’m going for a swim in the morning and there were a few funny looks. I found out later they thought i was going to swim in the Tyne, under blooming the Gateshead bridge, which I WAS NOT!

But part of those looks might have been I would say I’m not and never have been, a morning person. But I was 25 minutes from South Shields, and that beach is a proper special one for me - my first coach is based there, years of sea dips with him back when we worked together. That’s actually where the whole love of it started.

So even on about five hours sleep, getting up early felt easy. Had something I actually wanted to do rather than something I was making myself do.

No one else on the beach. Water was properly freezing, in the best way. Stood there and just knew it was going to be a good day.
Still thinking about why that felt so easy when so much else that’s meant to be good for me doesn’t.

What’s your sea dip equivalent- when you do it it sets you up for a great day?

Link in comments below for more info and to bag your ticket.

What a gift to give yourself and a friend

So in our team meeting I always ask - what’s your biggest win this week.

This week ….Silence. Then someone goes “I’m still alive.”

Everyone laughed, I laughed. But then I actually asked properly, didn’t just move on. And it came out - they genuinely couldn’t find one. Quiet week, nothing to point to, so the joke was the easiest way out of an honest answer.
And it made me stop and think… how often does that happen to me. Week goes by, nothing headline-worthy happens, so I quietly decide there’s nothing worth mentioning.

But surviving a genuinely flat, grinding week where nothing went right and you still turned up every day - that’s not nothing. That might be the actual win. We just don’t count it because it doesn’t look like one.

This has been a game changer for me over the years, call it gratitude, wins, glimmers whatever you want and feels good for you but looking for those things daily can, and has had, a huge impact on me. AND keeping it transparent, sometimes even after years of doing it I have a tendency to be looking for the big stuff and over looking over all the great micro things, that build and really important!

What’s the win you talked yourself out of this week?

When do you feel alive af?

One of the times I feel it is when I get into cold water.
Again today I noticed the little voice- it’s windy, the water is choppy it’s cold just getting changed are you sure you want to do this.

I got in up to my waist, my skin hurting and my breath taken.

Again the thought well you have done this and it’s hurting, you have done enough you don’t have to go into your shoulders.

And again I settled my breathe, reminded myself I’ve done this many times before, even when it’s been colder and proceeded to get the girls in and up to my shoulders. (I find a few expletives and noises help)

Every time I move, extend my arm or leg a bit of me feels that tingle of the water.
So in my body and present.
As it eases, looking for other things to keep me present, noting the little waves lapping against my neck, the sound of the geese, the sunshine, and noticing the calm that comes through my body.

Getting out, seeing my red skin, feeling the after drop and the getting warm in my dryrobe.

I love it!

I also feel alive AF when I’m coaching, no pain here, but what is the same is the presence. This time the attention is outward, with my clients, no distraction, no where else to be, no one else in mind. The excitement, the sorrow, the joy, the dreams, the hurt, the frustration, the anxiety, what ever the client brings I can hold it, we can hold it.
There isn’t a feeling quite like the pride, excitement and love for my clients when a client have breakthroughs, take action, see new patterns.

There are other things too, when I feel alive af but these two are feeling most present for me today , as I sit at the lake in the sunshine.

And I’m curious what makes you feel alive AF and when was the last time you felt it? Let me know in the comments I’d love to hear.

Who been watching the olympics?
What’s been the best thing you’ve seen so far?

January can be such a strange month emotionally. It can feel a long time since December payday. It’s dark. Everyone’s meant to be back at it while still half hibernating. I think some people feel like they failed January, when some New Year’s resolutions are challenging to say the least, and almost give up on thier dreams for the rest of the year. For some it feels more like January happened to them.

I’ve been sitting with that, rather than doing a proper “January review”. I don’t really want to review it. I want to notice what it quietly showed me.

I had to cancel two things this month. The January Ruddy Joyful Walk, and a coaching call, both at short notice, because Mother Nature was sending Jack Frost out to play and I was attending a funeral, I didn’t expect it to impact my energy as much as it did. I really hate cancelling. It matters a lot to me that I show up and it matters just as much that when I do, I’m in good energy. So that was uncomfortable cancelling and also the right call.

There were other moments that felt completely different. I finalised and delivered a full Reclamation Sessions week. I coached 12 amazing people. There were stretches where I felt so aligned and excited.
I had a really fun date night with my husband, at the WWE no less, I was so surprised at just how much i enjoyed it! The kind of thing that reminds you you’re not just managing life together.

I spent time updating my website, actually working on my business as well as in it, which always shifts something in me. I planned dates with friends and family instead of vaguely hoping they’d happen. That felt grown up in a good way.
And I rested. Properly. I listened to my body. I didn’t go flat out and hit the wall by the end of January like I’ve done so many times before. That’s newer for me. And it feels important.

I’m not taking a big lesson from January. I’m just paying attention to what costs me and what doesn’t.
If January felt heavy, or messy, or like it took more than you expected, you’re not doing it wrong.
If you want to tell me what your January was actually like, you can. I’m here.

This is me bringing a thing back because I liked it too much to let it disappear.

I’m offering two free coaching sessions each month. Proper one-to-one coaching. Up to an hour. No pitch at the end. No expectation it leads anywhere. I e said this before but …I just really flipping love coaching and want to do more of it for the sheer joy of it.

Each month I’ll loosely hold a starting point from my work, mostly so there’s something to lean on if that helps, but you can bring whatever you want. You don’t need to prepare anything or make it fit.

Anyone can book. New to coaching, coached with me before, curious, unsure, fine. It genuinely doesn’t matter.

This month’s starting point is relationships and how you show up in them, mostly because that seems to be what’s “in the air” in Feb, right?!. But if that’s not your thing, bring whatever is.

Two sessions only!

When they’re gone, they’re gone. Link’s there if you want it.drop me a message I’ll get the link over to you.