Issue 25 | Bloom with Ruth Penfold-Brown

Welcome to 2024 beautiful humans ?

I hope your holiday season was whatever you needed it to be. Mine was full of plans... but a good dose of flu meant that we took a much slower pace this year.

Whilst it wasn’t quite what we wanted, perhaps it was a slice of what we needed. My parents have been here for a couple of weeks though which has been a wonderful blessing.?

Whatever your holidays have given you, this year, my wish for you is that you empower yourself to claim whatever you want and need your life and career to be in this season.?

And in case you are wondering what that is, join me on Tuesday 9th where I will share how you can use the BLOOM method to manifest your dream career in 2024.?

But in the meantime, I want to invite you to do something, perhaps even today.?

When we arrive on this planet, as very young children, I believe that is the closest we get to being at our essence. ?

Maybe you held out a little longer than me, but I lost myself when I was about 4/5 years old. That’s the moment when I stopped being me, and focused on being what I thought the world needed me to be.?

At our most authentic essences children, we are:?

Curious: we want to explore, and we approach new experiences without fear or prejudice.

Creative: we come up with innovative solutions to problems and are not bound by conventional thinking.

Real: we speak our minds without filters, which can be refreshing in a world where as adults we do not.?

Present: we are engaged in the moment and can be fully immersed in whatever we are doing.?

Loving: we are quick to forgive and forget, understanding the power of compassion and acceptance.

So with all that aspirational amazingness in mind, I want to encourage you to start this year by living from your essence.?

1. If you have access to any, see if you can find a childhood picture of you that captures little you. Not of you doing the things that other people have told you that you like to do, as close to the true nature of your spirit you can get.?
2. If you are up for it, send me your picture and a brief description of you at your essence.?I would love to see them!

Or at least have that in mind when you meet me on January 9th and we can figure out how to help you get back to that together.?Sign up here.

From my messiest, most imperfect self to yours, let’s make 2024 the year we get to be who we really are.

Big love, RPB

Did y'all catch my awesome new content series popping up on LinkedIn yet? If not, why not? Here's Nicole Hall with some words of wisdom to whet your appetite.

Please follow the posts, like and share them, to help me amplify the voices of these amazing women in HR; Lalita Sharma, Liz Afolabi, Natalie Harmon-Tatton, Chez Rueda (Murphy), JooBee Yeow, PhD, Joanne Atkins, Delia Bogues Assoc. CIPD, Merita Ramadani, Hannah Atack and Imani Carroll with you all.

Let this year be the year that you learn to get comfortable with discomfort.

Why? Because that is where the magic happens.

The brain will choose familiar pain over potentially magical growth if you let it.

And there have been looooong seasons of my life when I let it.

Since I left my last job in the summer of 2021, I have been living and making peace in discomfort.

I started 2023 not knowing if I had made the right choice in moving to America or in my marriage.?I was launching Bloom, and that felt great, but I had no idea where my life was headed.?A big part of me wanted to return to London, and my visa was due any day. Until my immigration lawyer let me know that my basic work/travel authorisation was going to take another three months.

If I had been able to travel then, who knows how long I might have left for and what it might have meant for my life in America.

But the Universe wasn't ready for me to go then. And the truth is, for all the chaos in my mind, my intuition said stay, ride it out, this path is for you.

I am so glad I did.

This year, almost 2 years since I moved, thanks to a brilliant therapist and some life defining experiences together, I start the year with a foundation in my marriage I didn’t think was possible.

I start it with a green card, with my driving license and my possessions finally about to leave the UK to meet me here.?

Did my brain want it all to be here sooner? Hell yes. But truly, it all arrived right when it needed to.

Divine timing.

I am so excited to see what 2024 brings.

Here's to staying in the discomfort ?