Hey Reader

November always feels like a long exhale to me.

The garden goes quiet, the leaves are disappearing, the evenings close in, and I find myself asking how I'm really doing. Where do I need to slow down and take stock? What do I need to let go of?

Two years ago, that honesty found me.

In November 2024, I decided to stop teaching yoga. I’d been mulling it over for a few months. After ten years, it had stopped feeding me. It was draining the energy I so badly needed for everything else. And menopause had arrived.

So I let it go. It was not easy.

This November I'm doing the opposite. Back on my mat as a student, and back to making things just because they feel good.

This month I want to make more room for what's mine. My own ideas, my own way of making things, even when it looks nothing like what anyone else is doing.

→ Try this: Give yourself 15 minutes to make something with no plan for where it ends up. Cut, stamp, scribble or stretch. Stop when the timer goes, even if you're halfway through a cat-cow.

3 prompts for Claude

1. Turn one class into a week of content

You already teach the good stuff. After your next class, record a two-minute voice note about the theme, then hand it to Claude.

→ Try this: "Here's the theme of my class today: [paste your voice note]. Turn it into one Instagram caption, three short Substack Notes and a paragraph for my newsletter. Keep it warm, simple and in my voice."

2. Let Claude find your thread

Most of us over 50 have done so many things that we can't see what links them. (Mine: design, yoga, teaching, and now AI.) Claude is brilliant at spotting the pattern.

→ Try this: "Ask me 10 questions, one at a time, about my career, what I teach and the people I love working with. Then tell me the thread that runs through it all, in one sentence." Or better yet, use my ROOT framework as a guide.

3. Write your welcome email once, and let it work for you

The first email a new subscriber gets is the one they're most likely to open. Write it once, and it greets every new person for you, even while you're on your mat.

→ Try this: "Write a short welcome email for new subscribers to my [yoga or wellness] newsletter. Tell them who I am in three sentences, what they'll get from me each week, and invite them to reply with one thing they're working on."

2 Midlife Field Notes

✦ Transitions are hard

Menopause is so hard, and every woman gets her own version. This week's Sunday Field Note is about getting back on my mat, being gentle with myself, and why joy isn't optional right now.

→ Read Sunday Field Note No. 2: Transitions are hard​

✦ The Joy Experiments are back

I bought a piece of cat wrapping paper (the cats were far too cool to wrap anything in). So I'm cutting them up, collaging and stamping, 15 minutes a day, max. Come and follow along, or even better, join me with whatever you have to hand 🐈

→ Join me: The Joy Experiments​

1 journal prompt

What patterns keep showing up in my life? What might they be asking me to notice?

Spend a few minutes noticing where patterns show up, when they show up and how. Maybe you’re being guided down a particular path, or maybe there’s something you need to stop doing.

That’s it for your weekly 3-2-1. I’ll be back next Thursday.

With love & creativity

Xo, Louise

P.S. Brand & Bloom's first cohort starts in January. If you'd love your marketing running quietly in the background, so you can focus on what you teach, join the waitlist here.