Celebrating the Holidays with Intention

At the beginning of this year when I was planning out what I wanted our lives and my work to look like, the word “intention” kept coming to mind. For a while I had felt like my life was running me, rather than the other way around. I was saying yes to things that I felt like I “had” to. I was doing projects that I felt like I “should” be doing. But there was something feeling off about everything.

What I realized, eventually, was that I wasn’t letting my own compass guide my path. I was following a bunch of paths that other people’s compasses were pointing to. I would see another blogger creating in a certain way and think, “Well, I guess I need to keep up with that too.” Or I would see another entrepreneur doing something new and think, “Yep, gotta add that to my list.”

And after so long of that, I just felt exhausted by it all. By the trying to keep up, and the working away at things that weren’t really essential to me. So going into this year, I made a concerted effort to really be intentional about the life that I’m building for myself and my family, and the community that we have here on Lovely Indeed.

No more doing things just to keep up with someone else. No more creating a DIY project just to have some content to toss up on the blog. No more unintentional choices.

And you know what? It’s hard.

It means that I really have to look inward and decide what’s important to me enough to want to include in our lives and share it here.

But! It also means that every single thing I do, I believe in and truly care about and think is worthwhile.

All of this is to say, I’m trying my best to keep living with intention through the holidays this year. For me, this time of year is totally sacred (literally and figuratively). I truly think it’s a time for diving inward a bit, for being with people who genuinely love you, for taking part in the traditions that you value, and for just slowing down a bit (despite what the world would want from you).

So, as a reader here, I just want to reach out and make sure that you have a chance to do those things too. I know that over the holidays we share a ton of content and a zillion ideas of fun things to do. But do you have to do all of them? Nope. Do you have to do any of them? Nope. Know what you have to do? The things that feel essential to you in this season.

I hope that you know that I don’t share here to make you feel overwhelmed by all of the holiday “must-do” items on your list. I share because it’s the way that I love to spread joy. I share because these are the things that I do and make in my everyday life. And I share because I enjoy doing it.

So I hope that you’re able to look inward during these holiday moments and really find out what matters to you. Maybe it’s baking, maybe it’s crafting, maybe it’s decorating… Or maybe it’s just enjoying small moments without any of that stuff. And that’s just as good.

Happy holidays, friends. xoxo