This newsletter has a reflection and a practice to try, an offer to read tarot with me, and a few other resources.

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💫 Savouring in small doses

Hi friend, I hope this finds you well. It can be an overwhelming time, the holidays, when the nostalgia and expectations of the past collide with our dreams and goals for the future. I tend to find myself in a state of anticipation and worrying more often than I'd like, wondering if I'm doing enough, bringing enough, being enough.

Be gentle with yourself, friend — if it feels hard, it's because it IS hard. If it feels complex, it's because it's complicated. The holidays and the end of the year can bring us joy and relaxation, but they also kick up grief and fear and heartache, especially now, when our world feels so broken and aching for peace.

We must tend to ourselves if we are to tend to those around us. To have the capacity to keep going. To have the capacity to show up, and keep showing up. We cannot pour from an empty cup.

My offering to you: you might practice microdosing savouring. Find something that is pleasurable, pleasant to your senses — maybe a shortbread cookie, a chocolate, a scented candle, a soft throw — and try focusing on that and only that for a minute or two.

Let the chocolate dissolve on your tongue slowly and notice how the flavour evolves. Notice how the blanket tickles your skin, how your feet grow warm within a few moments, how it travels from your toes down the sole to your ankles. Slow down and savour the transition of how your body responds to what you've chosen. You are here, right now. See if this opens up a little more space for you. Repeat as necessary.

Sending you lots of love today, tomorrow, this season, every season. I'll be travelling until the end of the year, but keeping an eye on email. Tell me, what might you choose to savour for you, just you, over the next few weeks?

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Offerings

✨ Tarot readings for your year

This is my first time opening my books to read tarot beyond friends + family after more than a decade of practice (!!!). It's a joy for me to share this skill with you, as it's a practice that has held me through so much transformation and reflection.

Both tarot readings for your year (60 mins. together on Zoom, recorded) or readings for your moment (voice memo + photo of your spread) come with journal questions you can continue working with. Both are also available as gifts!

You can learn more and book your reading at amandacaswell.com/tarot or simply email me back with any questions you might have.

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👂 Contribute your feedback on Journal Circle

As I plan for the coming year, I've opened up a survey about this monthly gathering. I am always open to hearing what resonates for you — does the timing work? Would you like the session to be recorded, in case you can't make it live? Anything you love? Anything you hate? It's anonymous, so feel free to be candid.

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Noticings

🌚 This week, on my blog, I started a new practice of aligning my intention setting and releasing along with the moon cycle, saying "I invite in a natural rhythm that is already here, shaping the tides and the tides of my body, it too made mostly of water. I choose to notice more closely how this practice of noticing might shape me." My Substack is the place where I plan to experiment more with writing over the coming months — subscribe for updates as soon as they arise.

😜 Music for movement/ tidying your house/ wrapping your gifts/ feeling the spark: Psyche's Psyche. This has been my go-to album for focus time all week and mannnnn, does it get stuff flowing.

😌 Music for taking a break from the mayhem/ quiet companionship/ reading / end of year reflections: Hermanos Gutiérrez El Bueno Y El Malo​

📓 Speaking of end of year reflections, are there any resources you like? For the past couple years I have dabbled with Susannah Conway's (free!) Unravel Your Year journal, and I think this year I might do her Find Your Word guide as well.

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With love,

​Amanda Caswell (she/her) is a human being who wants to know what life feels like for you. Forwarded this by a friend? ​Subscribe for reflections + events to support your self-inquiry.

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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