WYTHNOS PEDWAR DEG DAU - week forty two

09/06/25

After a week of being down with the flu, I’m finally back to about 90% health and ready to (re)kickstart this semester properly! On Tuesday, we had a progress review with Kayla and Paul, I was a bit nervous going into it because, truthfully, I hadn’t done much physically since getting back from Shanghai. That said, I’d been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting, so I did have plenty to share.

One of the main things I’ve been thinking about is the conversation I had with Kayla and Josh before the Shanghai trip. At the time, the idea of a wellness toolkit came up, and while it made sense in theory, I’ve realised it’s not something that really excites me. I don’t feel ready to create something like that because I haven’t given myself enough space to just be creative first. I think I need to reconnect with my own creative practice before I can even think about guiding others.

That realisation led me to the fact that I need to focus on building myself first, specifically, my personal brand. Doing that will give me a stronger foundation for things like a potential toolkit, and eventually for setting up my own Stiwdio. So the plan for this week is to start refreshing my website so it feels more ‘me’ and to design a logo that I can use across social platforms. I’ve already got my Instagram set up, but I really need to be more active on it, and I also want to start creating content for both TikTok and Instagram that I can share through The Recreational Wardrobe too.

I think being part of The Recreational Wardrobe has been a big motivator in all of this. Every other board member has their own thing going on and I’m just a uni student right now, which does make me feel a bit behind. I actually spoke to Veronika about this when we met on Friday to chat about The Retreat, and it turns out she feels the same. It was reassuring to know I’m not alone in feeling this way. We really relate to each other, we’ve got similar ambitions, we’re both passionate about supporting others and creating spaces for creativity, but we’re also juggling the reality of finances and needing to get a ‘normal job’ to pay the bills.

We also made some good progress with The Retreat planning. Cathy can no longer do the August date for the weekend retreat, so Veronika and I are thinking of hosting a day retreat ourselves as a bit of a test run, which feels really exciting and manageable. This will then be the thing that I will submit for my Major Project as hopefully we can hold it before my submission deadline. I am a bit gutted that I won't be able to submit the weekend retreat but everything happens for a reason and maybe the timing is better this way and we have longer to plan and also learn. I feel grateful for the catch up with Veronika and I’ve now got a clear list of things to get on with this week: speak to my sister to see if she’d be up for leading yoga at a day retreat; chat to Chris about possible dates for both a weekend and a day retreat (and look into alternative venues if dates don’t work); and speak to Karen to see if she’d be interested in doing the food in exchange for a free spot.

As for my own creativity, I am going to start small with altering some of my own clothes. After speaking with Veronika it feels like that's something I could do for the Recreational Wardrobe, show people how they can alter clothes that already have or even things they buy second hand that aren't exactly what they want. I have lots of other ideas too but I know if I plan too much I will overwhelm myself and end up doing nothing. As for Cathy teaching me how to spin & weave, that's not going to happen until the beginning of July so I have a couple of weeks to get my own things going before I start to focus on that.

All in all, I feel like I’m finally getting some clarity. Last week I felt a bit lost and out of sync, but I’m starting to see the direction I want to take, and it feels good to be back. I’m not expecting to have everything figured out overnight, but this week has reminded me that taking small steps (and being honest about where I’m at) is enough.

Action Plan for this week:

• Refresh my website to reflect my current style and voice

• Design a personal logo for consistent branding

• Start planning content for Instagram and TikTok

• Follow up on Retreat tasks (yoga, venues, food)

• Plan a test-run day retreat with Veronika