A Mindful and Intentional 2020

Happy new year! I hope you all had a relaxing holiday break and recharged, refreshed and reinvigorated yourself for a new decade. I love that special feeling of new beginnings—there is something exciting about this time of year when you feel like you don’t what goodness is ahead.

We hopped off social media for about two weeks and in full transparency, what a breather that was—I really recommend disconnecting. I had almost forgotten that feeling of being completely present and not worrying about snapping photos to share. Is anyone else exhausted by this task? I feel a kind of emptiness scrolling through Instagram more and more. Near the end of last year, my anxiety was at an all time high. A few things had occurred that really rattled me and I needed to step away to examine how to move forward. I was going to do a ‘what I learned in 2019’ post, but I decided to slip away and focus on my mental health, something else I really recommend. I learned last year, what I want and what I don’t want for ROSE & IVY. One thing I realized is that many individuals who operate in the media industry view it as a machine and more often than not, they don’t understand my mission, what I am doing and that we are also super small. We don’t operate with a ‘one and done’ approach, anything we do, we are putting major support behind it and since everyone else just moves on, they assume we are the same. I experienced individuals who were incredibly entitled, a lack of gratitude and if I’m being honest, I had some encounters that made me sick to my stomach.

But with the new year ahead, I am walking into it with a lot of wisdom. I failed a lot last year and I learned a lot. But one thing to note that while I stumbled, I kept falling forward. The only way that this happened was that I kept pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and to do better. It has made me want to become even more mindful and intentional about the stories that I am telling and the people we are meeting. One thing is for sure, if you read the post last year, we are really focusing on brands that are doing good—in a sustainable and ethical way—and being mindful of the products that we write about with the environment in the forefront of our mind.

Someone recently asked me if I have any resolutions—while I never do resolutions—I am adopting a frame of mind that poses these two simple questions: ‘how can I make the world a better place?’ or ‘how can I spread kindness wherever I go’?. It’s simple but powerful. I wish you all a magical new decade. xx - Alison Engstrom, Founding Editor