Greetings dear friends, and welcome to the last update of our words for 2025. You will find the link up at the bottom of this post. Thank you so much for joining me this year as, together, we examined how a specific focus could impact our days. I am eager to read your updates!
Yutori:
The conscious act of slowing down to allow us to savor the world around us. The refusal to rush. No talking. Just absorbing the world around us with no goal except to see. Spaciousness.
I am circling back to the beginning to close things out this year. I spent all of November journaling every single day and the result of those days birthed the idea of a bit of a Yutori Advent Calendar of sorts. This month, I have spent each morning quietly sitting with myself and writing a few reflections on my thoughts and my feelings. It has been the best thing ever. There is something truly magical in consciously slowing down, savoring the world around me, not rushing, quietly absorbing with absolutely no goal at all other than to just be.
This might be my last month with a focus on Yutori, but this last year has helped me build some brilliant strategies that I will be carrying with me as I go forward.
As 2025 draws to a close, I am happy to share that despite having a year with much uncertainty, pain and loss… Yutori was exactly what I needed to get through this year.
And although I am not stepping into 2026 “healed” and raring to go… I am very comfortable stepping in exactly as I am with all that I carry with me. And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing!
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below. This link up will only be open until midnight on the 31st.
I wish you a very Happy New Year, I will be back on January 5th.
Happy New Year Kat! Yutori has been such a good – perhaps perfect – word for you this year. It is also a word that I will be thinking of as I work on slowing down and savoring time in 2026. Sending love and warmth to you in the New Year.
When you picked Yutori for your word, you couldn’t have guessed how useful it would be for you this year, but it certainly seems to have been an especially meaningful word for you in an especially difficult year. I’m certain that the lessons it’s taught you will serve you well in the years ahead. Here’s to a new year with happier times!
It seems almost prescient that you would have chosen Yutori as I think it has “helped” you this year, but I think it would have been a good word no matter what you were facing. While I don’t choose a word myself, I think I’ve benefited from your choice and monthly posts. Thank you and I’m hoping that you benefit from Yutori in 2026.
I come away from reading this post with the word ‘pure’ in front of my eyes, Kat. And ‘essential.’ Which brings me to ‘essence.’ All of which seem to be circling around the idea that *this is the point.* The quintessential ‘Wherever you go, there you are…’
All I knew when you started this word was that it intrigued me. Thank you for bringing us along on a heck of a journey.
I’ll be linking up within a day or two. Thank you for hosting and holding the space! It’s sacred to me.
I am so glad that you had this word to fall back on this year, and have some strategies to turn to in future. I look forward to where you go next.
What a beautiful way to end a challenging year — and begin a new one. Thanks for sharing your words and insight, Kat. XO
Like you I journal a lot and it helps me process my thoughts and feelings. I enjoyed your year reflections and reading about them.
Happy new year, Kat. May it be gentler than this one ended up being.
I’m not sure where I’d be without a journal. I think your final thoughts are in a good place, stepping forward exactly as you are.
Lovely, Kat. And I don’t think we ever stepped into a new year being “healed” but we can face the new year being exactly who we are . . . and with courage. XOXO