Hello my loves,

Yesterday I handed back the keys to the King Street premises that has housed Hearth & Soul for the past two years. I’ve been reflecting this week on everything that’s transpired since I signed the lease in September 2018, and I can tell you that I am absolutely overflowing with gratitude. I’ve experienced so much in that time, all of it chock-full of rich, deep learnings which have done nothing but position me perfectly to leap off the diving board into my next adventure. What an absolute gift. Even though Hearth doesn't currently have a physical presence, nothing has really changed. Hearth is my heart, it's everything that I am, and I will absolutely be continuing to share all of it with you in many, many different iterations as the months and years roll on. It's really very exciting.

Gratitude’s been a big theme for me this week, and I want to talk some more about it, and share the two-minute gratitude practise I’ve been doing each day that’s really shifting me to a new level of contentment. We’re not really raised with any concept of gratitude in our consumerist world. From the moment we’re born, we’re trained to focus on what we don’t have, rather than what we do have, and spend our lives striving to attain what society tells us we want. From the appropriate education to the ‘right’ career, to the house, the car, the partner, the kids, and the holidays, we’re indoctrinated to believe that without these things we’ll never be happy. Our lives are positioned as long and linear struggles to check generic goals off the official list, all the while comparing ourselves to others who appear further ahead on the consumerist-road, and feeling pretty shit about our lack of progress. I wonder what we think is going to happen when we ‘get there’? It’s as if there’s an unconscious subtext in all of our psyches, luring us to believe that once we’ve achieved all the big-ticket items, we’ll arrive at a state of earthly nirvana where nothing ever bothers us again and we sit smugly in our houses with our rosy-cheeked children and our money, feeling happy and fulfilled all the damn day long. Yeah. Sure.

Spend a day walking in the shoes of someone who you think ‘has it all’, and I’ll bet you anything that you’ll find out they don’t. Here’s a fact: people who have more things than you are not happier than you. It’s the people who are grateful for what they have, no matter what their circumstances, who’ve won the game. You have already arrived at a state of earthly nirvana, you are already there. You just need to stop and notice it. And this week, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Every evening at the dinner table, before we start eating, my beloved and I have been taking a couple of minutes to each share three things we’re grateful for. No matter what the day has brought, no matter what emotions have washed over us, at the end of it we turn our focus back to the goodness that overflows in our lives, and we talk about it. It's freaking beautiful. It is an absolute sure-fire snap out of nasty victim-based though patterns, and a daily reminder of the joy, learning and growth that exists in every aspect of the human experience. I know that not every day feels like a good one – it happens for me too. This year has been particularly challenging for all of us, as we’re all pushed deep into our shadow sides to do a mega-massive global emotional clean out. That shit hurts. But it’s not the end of the world. Really, I promise you that it’s not. You will get through it. You will be a stronger, better, more aligned person because of it, and your life experience will be richer as a result.

While you’re riding the mechanical bull that is 2020, gratitude is the firm grip that’ll keep you seated and strong till the end, centred in your power and perfectly balanced to ride the bucks and leaps with an abiding sense of wellbeing, and maybe even a teeny, tiny little nod to the exhilarating side of sweeping change. If your day's been a screamer and you're struggling to understand what on earth there could be to value from it, here's some handy prompts to help you pinpoint three things you can be overwhelmingly glad for:

If you're going through a triggering or painful experience, can you give it the old one-two flip and name something that you're grateful to be learning as a result of it?
What have you seen in nature today that has lifted your heart for a moment?
Did anything funny happen today, even just for a second, that gave you a bit of a giggle?
Where have you seen kindness in your day, or where have you had the opportunity to be kind in your day?
Who have you made a joyful connection with today, even just for an I-smile-you-smile moment with a passerby?

And so my loves, on we go, sailing under the full moon into another weekend, which in my part of the world is a glorious spring one. I’ll be supping the sweet-smelling air and doing my best to find the joy in every moment, which to be honest is pretty easy when the whole world is a technicolour explosion of blossoms, bees, butterflies and sunshine. Wherever you are, I wish you the unparalleled beauty of a grateful heart, and all its accompanying joy.

Love, Rachel xxx

PS It’s a year of powerful emotions. If you’ve felt as though yours are rampaging out of control, and you don’t quite know what do with them, then I have some good news. The amazing healer, coach and teacher, Prema Sheerin, is teaching an Emotional Wisdom teleclass, starting on October 7th. I adore Prema’s teachings, I did one of her Emotional Wisdom courses a couple of years ago and it was quite honestly life-changing. If you’re wanting to make peace with your emotions, and learn how to be with and navigate all of them, even the ones that we view as negative (fear, anger and grief, I’m looking at you), then this is exactly the teaching you need. You’ll find all the details here.

Love, Rachel xxx