It’s time to joyscape Christmas!

A friend told me she was crawwwwwwling to Christmas yesterday.

God knows, it feels like a battle this year… Which is why, right here and now, this is the moment to plan some joy. 

Joyscaping

Open your calendar to January 4th 2023, and write down all of the joyful, precious moments you want to have over the break.

Maybe…

🕯 candlelit carols (extra sherry)

🍲 a PJ-day fuelled with ham sarnies and Celebrations

🍿 declining Uncle Derek’s turkey buffet in favour of rewatching the whole Nativity series (though I concede number 2 is dodgy.)

Workshop ‘life’

Felix Koch (Co-Founder of soon-to-be-launched mental health venture Within) and his wife have taken this thinking a step further. Every year between Christmas and New Year they take two days away at a nice hotel without their three kids to “workshop life” and plan their year ahead.

They work through a framework of subjects (have a look here, he will happily email you a copy). It includes: what the kids need, what they need, what holidays they should take, and, because they are German and fabulously direct, questions include which older person in our life might die this year and are we having enough sex?

He says he leaves feeling light because all of the difficult decisions have been made. “It’s the best feeling ever.”

Chris and I have booked our away workshop in early January (though so far, I might have dwelt on the award-winning spa and Asian-fusion restaurant than Felix’s workshop framework!)

Action

So, today—STOP:

🎄 Plan real, true bits of JOY for the festive season

✂️ Ditch anything joyless that you can

🧭 Schedule some time to decide your priorities for 2023

Wishing you a very intentional and JOYFUL Christmas, with lots of cheer from the Armstrong & Partners team. THANK YOU for watching, commenting, liking and sharing!

And do tell us what you want from the vlog next year: subjects, formats, people. Do you want to learn more about Felix’s framework in January? We’ll get him on.

Big festive ❤️ from,

Christine, Elaine, Adam, Filip, Oldnall, Scott and Chris 🧑🏼‍🎄