****To enjoy this letter to its fullest potential, I’d love if you might hit the play button on the audio recording….Lie on the couch, head for a walk, clean out the fridge, or just sit down with a cuppa and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together x
Well hello there my lovely Substack friends,
How are you all keeping? Hope you are doing well and I hope January has started nicely for you.
As I sit and type this letter I am thinking to myself of how lucky and grateful I am. January - as I’ve mentioned before is not a month I allow to seep in around me too much. I give February the starting gun to my new year and until that moment I lie back in the arms of January (like a really comfortable armchair) and take a clear decision that this long first month of the year is thirty one days where I plan, relax, enjoy and get excited about the year ahead. I spend a lot of the later part of December thinking about this month. See if I don’t give power to the pressured nature of January, I give power to the positive bounce board that I can then make it. This time last year I began 2022 with the intention to write and publish my first book and I achieved that. There were lots of tears but there too were lots of moments where I was really proud of myself and also lots of moments I made memories too with so many people I love. I’ll now take this moment to say one clear thing in looking back :
2022 - Thank YOU for being YOU!
As January begins, it has started off in good style so far. As 2022 closed I spent a lot of Christmas reflecting and looking back at the year that was and also looking closely at my own life. I like to keep myself in check when it comes to my value system, my hopes, my dreams, my inner circle, looking and reviewing and making sure I am contributing to all those people who are contributing to me and rounding up with the big picture of my life. Is there aspects I want to focus on more? Are there places where I can bring more joy? What makes me happy? And most importantly what brings me PEACE?
Peace is often overlooked in this world but for me it is vital to my happiness and to my life. I now know that peace inside me brings peace outside me. I pick my people, my circle and I invest my time where peace lights up in me. See for me, peace leads to joy and in turn leads to happiness. Of course this is just my own take on life but for me peace is everything. When I lie my head on my pillow at night, the best sleep is gained through knowing I tried my best, gave my all, and loved those who loved me. Each year I renew that focus and also align with it, my wishes, my dreams and my goals for the year ahead while trying my best to improve on myself. Nobody in this world is perfect and I am far from a perfect human. I make mistakes. I make the wrong calls. I get grumpy and cross like everyone else. I get lost. I get out of the wrong side of the bed. I take things and people for granted and I too lose sight of the big picture when tangled in the small. But I think in saying that, for most of the time, I try my best to be a good human and in each night when I put my head back down on the pillow, this is where my ‘peace’ comes and sits very easily in me. In trying my best each day, I give myself the grace each night to know that I’ve done just that as best I can, I’ve tried and that is all I can ever ask of myself and expect of others. Once we’re trying, we’re winning in my eyes.
So as this year kicks off calendar wise, I’ve set myself a particular set of words to focus my mind and heart on. I’ve made my vision board and I’m exciting about the amount of colour I’ve put into it. For me; aspiring visions and a bright and hopeful future needs to be wrapped in colour as the darkness of life will always creep onto our paths but the one aspect we have control on, is how much colour we want to bring to the canvas that is our own lives and also the lives of others… As best we can, we must always be reaching for the light when it comes to our future plans. Some of the words I’ve chosen to focus on are as follows:
Balance
Boundaries
To Be Brave
To Believe
To Blossom
Oh and my one new section of words have just been added for 2023 are
TO STOP, GO & ARISE ….I’ll explain more as we go.
So lets start with Balance:
Balance is defined as a harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole. Balance is having the right amount — not too much or not too little — of any quality, which leads to harmony or evenness. For me reaching that middle ground is the dream. I am a libra by birth and I can tell you, there is no better starsign for me in so many ways by the nature of my personality. Balance is a golden region which in the chaotic nature of life, can often be overlooked and just be so easily forgotten about, but this year after a very determined twelve months of working really hard to get the book written in such a short amount of time and with extensive grieving a must suffered part of the process not only for my writing but also for my heart, 2023 is a year in which I will focus more acutely on striking a balance between work and play.
As a libra by heart, I am always looking for balance in a lot of aspects of my life but as we all know, it’s much harder to achieve than just to dream about it. I started this brand new year by taking a four day trip with one of my best friends to the German capital of Berlin to close down my working brain and to open up my heart to happiness, joy, escapism and adventure and to make my first efforts to reach that golden place of balance from the word go. Following this I’ve booked three more days down the countryside to again, just escape to somewhere I love. I’m off to one of my favourite finds of 2022, the gorgeous Fitzgerald's Woodland House Hotel. My reach towards the joyful place of balance between working hard and actually taking a moment to enjoy my life is definitely being attained as I start January off.
Next up - Boundaries:
A boundary is defined as: a real or imagined line that marks the edge or limit of something. Here comes another tricky line that most, if not all humans struggle with. Whether it’s creating a boundary, recognising a boundary or breaking one that you’ve created too strongly, boundaries are tricky no matter who you are. While having an in-depth chat with one of my best friends, they know who they are, (while they read this) we discussed how important it is to find that middle spot between having a boundary and minding ourselves in this world. See even though I’d loved to believe that all humans have the best intentions for each other, we know this is not the case. There are indeed many people out there who take advantage, many people who are focused on their own personal success, many people who are not thinking or even aware of their own narcissistic drive and somewhere amongst that group, one can get swallowed up. One can be taken for granted. One can be taken advantage of. One can fall into that tricky spot where the relationship is less give and take and it’s more take take take.
Through having this deep chat I realised once again that I would much prefer and always will be someone who gives without hesitation. But also as my years clock up on this planet, I will try my best to improve to tighten those boundaries with people who by their nature lose sight of me in the picture. Often people don’t mean to take advanvage, they just get caught up in their own story and that is totally fine, it is my responsible to identify my own contribution to that and to find that middle sweet ground where I hold my own boundary. A boundary to protect myself. A boundary to keep my own mental health in the best possible place. A boundary to not always give all of me to everyone. But rather to continue to give to those who give to me. The middle ground of give and take coming into play once again. And to keep my awareness skills attuned if I feel the give-take relationship is off kilter.
Also the word boundary applies again to recognising the need for a nice blend of love, joy, laughter and happiness while applying that same ethic to my working life. Boundaries around both making sure I again am aiming for personal growth, contributing to this world in a way that fills my heart with joy and also gives joy to those around me and of course, my continued hope that I’m learning to become the best sort of human I can be.
One final word on boundaries is that in keeping boundaries in place, it is equally as important to recognise sometimes we need to lose boundaries too. A fluctuation of bending those boundaries or even being open to lightening boundaries is vital too, as often we can put them in place to keep ourselves safe or free from past hurt. We must also keep our minds open that past hurt does not always repeat itself and we must keep our hearts open to the love of others even if we are fearful of the way we were once hurt. While in Berlin, I witnessed the Wall of Berlin and in thinking deeply of all the hurt it caused, this was a stark reminder to me, of how important it is to let boundaries fall too and that often they can hurt so many. The future is brighter by keeping the right boundaries in place and equally losing boundaries that keep love out.
The next three words I’m going to bundle together…yes another B word…it definitely seems to be the theme today….. So here we go:
To Be Brave, To Believe and To Blossom:
These three phrases came to my mind as I looked towards the big picture of 2023 while keeping my eye on small steps…..Thinking about the twelve months ahead, I said to myself what do I want to achieve for myself…….
To be brave….What does that mean? Well for me. Last year I stepped out in lots of ways outside my comfort zone and as a human being, I think as much as comfort is somewhere that my peace lies, equally the drive to jump with excitement and fear is what being alive is all about.
To be brave is defined as: having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : having or showing courage. (As you might have guessed I love definitions of words). So being brave last year brought me lots of the best moments of my life so it is in that lesson, that this year, I am going to push myself out there and be brave once again. My first live show will take place on February 26th in The Moat Theatre in Naas, County Kildare and even though I feel fear, I am going to push by that fear and be brave. I also am going to travel to the United States of America in March all going to plan and again even though the ‘fear’ rises within me, I will again be brave and push on through it. I know by being brave it means I am living and I am alive and as long as I am healthy I will also try my best to be brave.
To believe is the second part of this trilogy. Belief is a powerful tool to have in your backpack in this life and when you are a social entrepreneur like myself and also a creative to boot, belief is all I have when it comes to who I am… Without self belief I will not survive and I will not be able to really embrace my gift of communication which I really believe I have. See belief sometimes can be judged in the wrong manner. Sometimes those without it in themselves, can see you as being egotistical or over confident which is very much not the case. The term belief is defined as: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing specially one without proof.
The belief mindset is vital to succeed in the creative world and in any line of business really. One must believe in themselves if they want others to believe in them too. I must not let self doubt and any sort of imposter syndrome pull me back from jumping from the airplane with my parachute on as if that was to be the case, again I will not be living my full life. Instead it would be like Picasso creating a piece of art and then putting it in the bin. It would be an oversight and a let down of his own gift not to give it all in this world. We only get one go at this life and I intend to try my best to give my all and hopefully if I believe in the magic that is inside me, others too might believe too.
The final piece of this section is to BLOSSOM. When I chose this word I chose it, in the hope that each month I will see my own efforts, trial and errors and even small wins, leading to a blossoming of who I am. At the end of the day, my big questions for myself always remain the same: Who am I? What am I here on this earth to achieve? What can I bring to the world to help improve, enhance and even heal it? How can I as one person contribute to the world blossoming in more ways because I am in it? What legacy can I leave behind? Who will smile when they think of me when I am gone?
For me life is a short journey and we only have a limited amount of time on this earth to make an impact and I really really want my time on earth to leave it better than I found it. I know that might sound too out there for some but if I don’t aim to bring the best version of myself forward, who will? I have a duty to myself to improve who I am everyday and even on the days that I am weak, that I fail, that I fall, that I let myself down, I know it will be those days that drive me to pick myself up and chase the light with even more drive. I want to develop all aspects of who Louise Coghlan is and I want to not leave one inch, one drop of my life behind me as best I can. I am a worker, I am not afraid to try and fail and it is in that believe that I hope come December 2023 I will have blossomed in way I never expected and also in way I dreamed of at this stage of the year.
Here is to you blossoming in 2023!
To STOP & GO ……AND TO FINALLY ‘ARISE’
These final three word choices align with my most recent trip to Berlin……
Let’s start with Stop and Go…..Such simple terms that we are all very familiar with. In this case you won’t be surprised when I mention my inspiration for these are from the traffic light system in the 3.6million centred Berlin. On their pedestrian system for us crossing, their two little green and red people are very distinctly cute, yes I’m using the word cute. Because they both have hats on as you will see in my photos here. I couldn’t leave the city without buying a mug with this exact cute system on it and somewhere within me obsessing about this feature I realised that in life maybe we should approach life with a more stop go process. It’s ok to stop. And then off you go again. I stopped my work life while in Berlin and then when I returned I was better able to go again. So in 2023 I am going to apply this stop go system to myself. In that process you are actually giving energy back to yourself and even though we live in a world that loves to go, go, go and sometimes you think you can’t stop, you actually can. And in stopping, you are actually giving yourself a proper moment to be able to see, experience and live a full and extensive life in more ways than one. When I began this piece of writing, I thought I had nothing to say and even thought because I had taken a break, I wouldn’t be able to find any words to write. As you can see that was not the case once I got going. I said to myself as I began. Start Lou. Just go! Then you can stop. And then go again. A simple approach but it worked. No pressure. The stop go system takes away the pressure. Maybe you could apply this to your day, your work, your stresses in whatever way that might help and don’t forget to wear your cute hat while doing it. Stop when you need be. And then go again, my dear friends! #stopandgo
Finally the last word of the moment
‘ARISE’
Let’s finish on a……definition haha ;) you know me so well at this stage….Ok so To ARISE is defined as follows: To begin or to come into being. Also to emerge. Where this word arose- is that punny or what? Well my inspiration for this final word which is one of my favourite is from a show I went to see in the Friedrichstadt Palace in Berlin last Friday night. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed and it filled me with pure love, colour and inspiration. My three favourite aspects of this wonderful world. Think of Cirque Du Soleil mixed with The Greatest Showman along with a truly moving story of how we humans can move from darkness into the light. The theme of the show is ‘Love is Stronger than Time’ so you can instantly know why I loved this show. The main character is a guy named Cameron and he is a photographer who is battling the darkness of life and trying to find his light. The other main characters are ‘Light’, ‘Darkness’, ‘Time’ and Muse’ and it is an amazingly glorious show of talent, magic and human inspiration. For me, it was like I was so meant to be at this show. It is the struggle of someone who is creative and also someone who is very human and vulnerable. I really connected with the story on a personal level and feel I was really meant to be at this show as 2023 began. Also we were so lucky to have got to sit in the very front row. I could touch the stage and this theatre was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to in my life so all aspects of this moment were electric. During the show I blessed myself, felt tears move in my eyes and in my heart and I said to myself, ‘Thank you Granny’. I know she’s with me as well as my dad in Heaven and all those who are overseeing the big picture of this world.
Producer Dr. Berndt Schmidt defined ARISE ; ‘To stand up, not give up, to keep faith in the eternal power of love and to trust that light will prevail over all darkness.’
It is this definition I will leave you with. Arise one and all. We can arise from anything that is put against us. We have the magic, the strength, the resilience inside us as humans and all we need to do is believe. This year I will believe in myself, in you and together we will ARISE!
Blessings and good health to you and all you love in 2023. Thank you so much for reading and listening to all my substack letters. Your support means everything to me. I write because you read. I record my voice because you listen. YOU are my reason for believing, blossoming and hopefully arising this year to the next stage of happiness, hope and peace within me. And I hope in so way I can help your reach that place of balance, joy and healing also. TOGETHER WE WILL ARISE!
Finally thank you for supporting me in so many ways.
I have lots coming up in 2023 which I will include some links here:
Granny Nancy The Book - Available to buy from here.
Granny Nancy - 107 Years in the Making - The Story Told by Granddaughter Louise Coghlan - Tickets available for this show in The Moat Theatre, Naas, County Kildare on Sunday February 26th at 3pm are available from here.
March will hopefully see me bring the Granny Nancy Book Tour Stateside to Boston and New York ahead of St. Patricks’s Weekend. If you live in the states or know any organisations or communities within Boston or New York that would be interested in having myself along to share ‘The Story of Granny Nancy’ in person, I would be most grateful if you might email details to grannynancy107@gmail.com. Also I am hoping to attain a sponsor to be involved with this tour, so if you know of any companies who might like to get involved that would be brilliant too. Thanks a million in advance.
I hope you enjoyed today’s substack and I would be so grateful if you might comment with any thoughts on this piece. Also I would be so grateful if you might share this piece of writing via your social media pages or your WhatsApp to share with your friends and family. I am a writer and the most rewarding aspect of what I do is to know others receive joy from my words.
Thank you in advance for any sharing of my work that you can spread.
Love and light from your biggest believer,
Lou xx
Another wonderful read Lou. Always words of wisdom and inspiration. It gives a sense of peace to read your work! Your year has got off to a great start and lots in store for you xxx
Very well said Louise and another beautiful read all the best for the new year 20/23 .