Hello! Hope you’re having a good start to your week.
October is here, and I am VERY happily entering roast dinner season (arguably my favourite season of the year), and Cecilia has already been dragged along for a cosy pub roast because I have important traditions to pass down. Although I have to say, Q4 feels SO weird this year. Normally, October arriving means I’m gearing up for the busiest few months across the businesses, whereas this year my weekly KPIs are considerably more milk-based.
I am still getting my little fix from the sidelines, though, because this week is the launch of our Camp TALA outerwear campaign, which includes our viral storm & polar puffer jackets. It’s very surreal watching one of our biggest campaigns of the year happen without being right in the middle of it. I have already messaged the team asking for one of the branded air fresheners.
And my last update is that episode 5 of the Future Self Series is live! Maya Raichoora is back to teach us all how to actually train your self-talk, emotions and self-image (apparently simply owning a Nintendo Brain Training game in 2008 was not enough). She also takes us through the exact visualisation she does herself to practise becoming her future self, and I genuinely think it’s some of the most important homework in the whole series.
I’ve always loved Maya’s approach to mental fitness as something we can actually train. We’re very used to the idea of keeping our bodies fit, but when was the last time we gave our brains the same attention?
I also loved what Maya said about dealing with difficult emotions, because I think we can get quite caught up in the idea that being mentally strong means nothing ever gets to you:
“Mentally strong people don’t avoid emotions. They have the courage to feel them and the compassion to move through them.”
Maya always comes with so much practical stuff alongside the theory so we can actually do the thing, and this episode was no different!! She took us through a guided visualisation to help us meet our future selves, which I’ll pop below so you can give it a go when you have a few minutes.
And for this week’s homework, Maya’s shared the five-minute ‘batman effect’ exercise from her book that she swears by. You’ll pick someone who inspires you, or your own 2.0, and practise imagining how they’d think, act and handle the things you find difficult. A little rehearsal for being the person we keep saying we want to become.
I honestly think this is one of the most important bits of homework in the whole series.
Also, if you haven’t watched the full episode yet, I’ve dropped it below.
Ooh this is a good one. I’d say start by taking the pressure off yourself to love this time of year just because everyone else seems to! You can struggle with the darker days and still find little bits of them you enjoy.
Sometimes it helps to notice how you’re feeling without immediately trying to fix it. Even just thinking, “my mood feels a bit lower today”, and giving yourself space to feel that, without judging yourself for it.
I’d try giving yourself a few things you specifically look forward to on grey days. Light a candle that smells amazing, make a proper hot chocolate, or get under a blanket with your partner and watch something you’ve both been saving (I’m locking into Celebrity Traitors).
If staying inside makes you feel worse, cosy doesn’t have to mean being at home all day. A walk followed by a café stop, a bookshop browse or having someone over for dinner might give you more of what you need. I hope this helps, but most importantly, remember, don’t shame yourself!
Building a personal brand is something I could talk about for hours, so I was always going to be very picky about who I handed this one over to. Let’s just say you’ll be in very good hands.
I hope you have a wonderful week & I’ll see you very soon,
