Anna Maria Locke

2023

5 signs you might be in an inner winter phase of life

2023Anna Locke

We enter an inner season of winter many times in our life, including but not limited to the menstrual phase of our monthly cycle, actual winter if you live in the north, pregnancy or postpartum, or after a really intense period of big change or expansion in your life or work.

Our society tells us we have to be constantly “on” and productive, so it’s hard for us to listen to our bodies but we’re part of nature and our bodies are cyclical. We have to go through winter in order to bloom again.

**make sure to be in touch with your medical provider to rule out any mood disorders, vitamin deficiencies etc.

But if you’re doing all the self care, mental health support, and taking all the supplements and you still feel like you’re not your typical go-getter achieving self, maybe your body and soul just need a break!

Signs you might be in a winter phase

  1. You lack clarity and motivation

  2. You feel disconnected from your purpose and it’s challenging to give a shit about things that you know are important to you

  3. You’re extra tired and have low stamina when you do have energy

  4. It’s hard to focus

  5. You’re feeling a strong pull to retreat, hibernate, and surrender any expectations and pressure you’ve been putting on yourself

Take a break from the goal chasing and give yourself permission to simply be.

“In the Reflective phase we can be so lacking in motivation and enthusiasm that we become disconnected from our own wants and needs...Nothing seems important, even our own goals and ambitions...The ‘whatever’ attitude makes it an optimum time to prioritize our lives, as nothing really has much priority. If something is really important it will be worth the effort...so we realize very quickly what is a ‘must’ action and what is a ‘should...this can actually become a resourceful tool for self-development and goal achievement...Suddenly this phase forces us to release the drive, but more importantly it forces us to drop our fear and anxieties...and simply accept the here and now.”

-Miranda Gray, The Optimized Woman

Winter is the best time to:

  • Rest!

  • Indulge in being as deliciously lazy and unproductive as possible

  • Reconnect with yourself

  • Identify any unnecessary “should’s” or pressure you’ve been placing on yourself, and let them go

  • Surrender, and surrender some more. Go inward!

  • Connect to your intuition and receive guidance from Divine Energy/Source/Universe/God

  • Journal

  • Meditate

  • Take a break from your workouts

  • Reflect, reconnect to your goals and intentions, access deep insights and intuitive hits.

  • Evaluate biz progress and make course corrections.

  • Nurture yourself

  • Order takeout or have your partner cook

  • Let go of as many responsibilities as possible for at least 2-3 days

  • Unplug from social media and go offline

  • Practice RECEIVING (over doing)

In nature, we always know that winter will end eventually.

Even if it takes forever if you live in the upper Midwest like me.

We trust that spring will come.

We make plans. We book trips. We update our wardrobes.

What if we could extend that same level of trust and assurance to ourselves, when we’re feeling bogged down in an inner winter?

If you have a regular menstrual cycle, you can practice leaning back into the low energy states and let yourself experience that regular boost of energy to remind yourself every single month that your body is on a regular pattern just like the earth.

But maybe your winter season is more Game of Thrones style, and you can’t see the end or how long it will take to make it through.

Spring will come again for you too. And the signs will be unmistakeable.

xo Anna

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How to do a monthly audit for your life coaching business

2023Anna Locke

Happy February! It’s a new month and on my to-do list is to review January and take an objective look at how the month went for my life, business, and goals.

It’s usually more exciting and fun to look forward and set new goals and plans, but it’s vital to reflect before we launch forward so we can learn from what didn’t work, continue what’s working, and make tweaks and adjustments as necessary!

So if you haven’t already, join me for a monthly life and biz audit.

It’s never too late to do this if you’re finding this post mid-month. And obviously you can use this process for any and every month of the year. Consistency and scheduling it into your work flow is where you’ll see the most impact.

This process can be used for any small business, but I’m personally coming from a life coaching perspective!

Because your life is a key factor in how you show up in your business, we aren’t just going to look at the numbers but also reflect on the big picture of how you’re feeling, managing your energy, and balancing your priorities.

The key for any kind of personal review process is to do your best to keep your emotions out of it! Put on your official CEO hat and pretend you’re looking at someone else’s work if you need to. If you feel yourself sinking into judgment, self criticism, any kind of wonky emotional funk, take a step back and get yourself into a higher energy state before returning to the process.

This is objective, not personal.

This is objective, not personal.

This is objective, not personal.

The whole point is to get curious and treat your work like one big beautiful messy creative experiment.

As they say in Sesame Street, “I wonder? What if? Let’s try!”

Monthly Life and Biz Review Process

  • Look at your previous month’s content. This includes social media posts, videos, newsletters, blogs, anywhere you showed up and shared online. What did well, and what didn’t according to engagement, open rates, etc? How can you tweak what you’re doing to do more of what’s working?

  • What do you want to share more of? What would feel really good, fun, natural, and exciting?

  • What area/s of life do you want to spend more time in?

  • What are your TOP 3 priorities for the upcoming month for life, business, and yourself?

  • What was your favorite thing about the past month? What didn’t go so well?

  • How can you make yourself more visible and get in front of more of your ideal audience?

  • What are some achievable and inspiring goal ideas for the month ahead?

Tip to add some magic and spice:

Set a “theme” for your monthly goals. For example, my theme for January was getting back into a groove with my daily and weekly routines, and my theme for February is going to focus on self love and the things that make me happy.

If you want some help and support in crafting your goals and living into your vision and desires for your life and business, I’d love to connect with you!

Click here to book a free 30 minute Mini Glow Up session, where we’ll chat about where you’re at and where you want to be, and I’ll help you walk away with one action step or aha moment.

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Navigating a season of "not yet"

2023Anna Locke

Right now snow is falling in west Michigan, we’ve barely seen a glimpse of sun in weeks, and it’s like nature is sending the very clear message to rest, hibernate, be still.

At the same time, I’m having a personal inner spring awakening thanks to second trimester energy and what feels like 18 months of pent up ideas and dreams and goals sensing they have free rein to finally emerge from the surface and be free to grow.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition but I’m fully enjoying having this down time to retreat from the world and get to work.

Spring is far away but deep beneath the earth seeds are sprouting, and new beginnings are on the horizon.

I always love looking at life through a seasonal or cyclical lens, because things never unfold in a linear pattern, despite what the thinking side of our brain expects.

We always circle back to the same lessons, mistakes, or growth moments over and over in a cosmic whirlpool of dejavu, but at the same time gaining experience, perspective, wisdom, and the opportunity to choose differently.

Life does not move in a straight line, or even a perfect circle with happy closure at every thread of our paths. Sometimes it feels more like a hot mess that is completely out of our control.

Menstrual cycle awareness is a fabulous built in way to honor your body’s need for different things at different times, but sometimes we go through energetic seasons that last beyond a month.

It seems like all the conversations I’ve been having lately with other moms, coaches, and business owners have had a similar theme, like we’ve all been going through this personal extended winter ala Game of Thrones.

And it’s freaking hard to be in the middle of a seemingly endless phase and not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Especially if it’s something you’ve never experienced before, like going through the newborn stage or a sleep regression or mental health crisis.

You’re inside something new, and you don’t know where the end is. In hindsight things move fast, but when you’re IN IT, it seems forever.

All we can do is lean back into our inner knowing that all things pass in time, trust that we’ll make it through to the other side, and in the meantime surrender and let go of our brain’s expectations or timeline.

My season of “not yet”

When it comes to my major areas of career, home, and family, it’s felt like for the last 12-18 months I was inside this limbo phase of “not yet, not yet, not yet.”

The best way I could describe it was feeling like a strawberry suspended in a big jiggling vat of jello. Not necessarily stuck and paralyzed, but not free or in my groove. Very much disoriented and disconnected from my inner bold, badass, creative and confident version of myself.

We didn’t have childcare for our first 8 months after moving to Michigan, which forced me to put my coaching business on the back burner (and subsequently feel disconnected from my inner purpose and joy of the work I do) so I could be a full time caregiver and mom.

Once we finally enrolled Thomas in part time preschool, I suffered a miscarriage during our quest to grow our family, which ultimately triggered a mental health breakdown and has forced me to put my mental and physical health first over everything else.

Then we faced so much rejection during our home search, until finally buying a house and moving!

So yeah, lots of exciting things have been happening, but not without trials and long seemingly endless stretches of waiting and surrendering control.

Sometimes you are so ready to move into the next chapter or season of life but you keep getting hitting roadblocks or set backs, like the universe or God keeps telling you “not yet. Not yet. Not yet not yet not yet not yet.”

During those times of freefall, it’s vital to surround ourselves with support because we can’t do everything by ourselves.

Whether that’s mental health support, financial support, childcare, or simply staying up too late to catch up with girlfriends and laugh.

The more we remember that we aren’t alone, the easier it is to take ourselves less seriously and give ourselves permission and space to let go of the frantic pace of the world and surrender into just being still.

So what if you have “nothing” achievement-wise to add to your resume or holiday letter at the end of the year? Maybe you can’t quantify the growth you’ve been experiencing on the inside, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless, or that nothing is happening to you and for you.

“Rest is the revolution that’s going to power your life”

-Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer (Wild Power)

And after winter comes a season of transition.

Transformation.

Like a butterfly emerging from the mush.

I don’t have some nicely organized 5 step process to pulling yourself out of a funk or extended winter, but all I can say is that when spring arrives again, you’ll know.

It might be subtle, but unmistakable.

Remaining in a state of inaction or status quo will feel existentially and maybe even physically intolerable.

You’ll have to move.

Trust that you’ll know exactly what to do.

Your next steps will be guided. You’ll start to have little synchronicities or signs or just chance encounters with friends that will give you a little micro-dose or glimpse of fresh energy and life, like a gust of warm air in early spring.

You won’t be ready to completely put yourself out there and bloom, but that’s ok because you don’t have to.

You might start to feel impatient that things aren’t moving faster, or that you don’t have the capacity to take action and do ALL THE THINGS that are suddenly flooding your brain.

But that is ok too.

Pace yourself.

Let your soul seeds germinate and nurture them in the darkness so they don’t get burned by the heat of the sun.

Find someone you trust to share your heart and witness your emergence from the cocoon.

And keep on honoring the pace of your heart.

xo Anna

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