015: New Year's Resolutions and the Moon

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Wayfair. Every style, every home. Hello everyone, how are you all? Bloody hell, I've missed you. Happy New Year! Can you believe that it's 2022 and we're still battling friggin coronavirus. Oh God, I hope you've all had an amazing Christmas break and that you're all refreshed and diving headfirst into the new year with all your resolutions. Might as well get it out my system now. Here's the downside: if you follow me on TikTok or Instagram, you might have seen that I had a bit of an unpleasant Christmas break. There's always a drama where I'm involved, isn't there? LOL. So if you listen to the last episode before the Christmas break, you'll remember that My plans for Christmas was to spend Christmas Eve with my mom and my nana because my mom was going to be working all of Christmas Day basically. So I was then going to spend Christmas Day alone, which I was fine with, but then I was going to head to Northern Ireland on Boxing Day to join my partner at his dad's house. So I tied up all of me orders and I wrapped up Cani Crystals for the year on the 23rd of December. I cleaned the fridge and the kitchen cupboards out because obviously I was chucking all the food out that I wasn't going to be around to eat that probably would have gone off, like salmon and chicken and stuff. And I packed me bags on the morning of Christmas Eve, on the 24th. I took myself and JJ, my little doggy, off to my mum's house. I tested with an LFT before I went, obviously. I'm a good boy, little angel. And I was negative. So to give me mum a little bit of a break, I'd offered to make Christmas dinner for me, her, and my nana. And come dinner time, we sat down, we ate it all together. We spent the afternoon just sat around chatting with cake and chocolate and drinks. It was lovely, don't get us wrong. Later in the afternoon, I visited my cousin. She lives on a farm, so I was around like all of like her partner's family, her husband's family. Um, she's also 8 months pregnant. I was running around with my other cousin's kids, like they jump all over us, they use me as a freaking climbing frame. Um, but yeah, I'd spent the rest of the afternoon with my aunties after that. I guess what I'm getting at is I was in really, really close contact with all of my family at this point. And that night I had planned to stay at me mam's, so it got about 11 o'clock and I headed off to bed. In typical mam style, she had the heating blazing through the house, it was like an absolute furnace. So I had a quick shower and I jumped into bed with next to nothing on because of how hot the whole house was. So a couple of hours had passed and I just couldn't sleep. I was starting to pour with sweat, so I went downstairs and I let me dog out for a little wee. And I just remember standing at me mam's back door dripping with sweat, but I was shivering at the same time. And you know when you just know that something's not right? I could just feel it. I was like, hmm, there's something not right here. And I felt as though me body was aching everywhere, so I was like blaming me mom's bloody spare bed mattress, but in hindsight it was probably due to the flu-like symptoms of muscular aching from the virus and stuff. So anyway, I came downstairs at about 3 o'clock Christmas morning and I lay on the couch because it was much cooler downstairs in her house. I still couldn't get to sleep by 4 o'clock and I was feeling worse and worse by the minute, so I decided to do another LFT test. I waited about 15 or 20 minutes for the results, and as far as I could see, it was negative. I mean, I was squinting by this point, and it was really dark. Obviously, it was stupid o'clock in the morning, but it was negative. So it was at this point that I managed to get to sleep, and it was now about 4:30 AM. And me mum came downstairs at about 7, and I just heard her shout, "When did you do this test?" And I could just hear the, like, sheer panic in her voice. So I opened me eyes, told her about the crap night's sleep that I'd had, and she walked over to us, like, covering her mouth with one hand, holding the LFT in between her finger and her thumb, as if like it was like a, I don't know, like an AIDS-infested needle, and she just shouted, "You stupid boy!" And I was like, "What?" As though I'd been actively going out of my way to catch COVID But I mean, like, that was exactly that, what I wanted, to catch COVID and be ill over Christmas. Anyway, the test was clearly positive. I had a faint line on the positive line. So I took another test that I'd done. I took that test, sorry, that I'd done from 4 AM. There was like a little tiny little line. So I told her that I was going to do another. So in the space of time that it took me to get another test out of the box, my mum had gone and rang me nana, me aunties, me cousins, pretty much everyone that I've ever met in my entire 34 years of existence. She was just panicking everyone into taking a test, all for my test to then come back and show a negative result. So I took another one after that, and that was negative too. So in the space of 24 hours, I'd taken 4 tests, and only the second one that I took at stupid o'clock in the morning was positive. But nevertheless, I was ill, and I knew something wasn't right. So I went and got me mask from the car to put on whilst I gathered the rest of me stuff from me mam's house she was getting ready to go to work anyway. I knew I had to go home and get a proper test, one of those PCRs, just for more of a confirmation really that I had COVID, and then I could tell people like, and warn them, like people that I'd been around. So especially with one test being positive and all the others being negative, the LFTs just weren't very accurate, they're just not very reliable. Anyway, me mum tested negative, so off she went to work. And I went back home. And looking back now, I honestly don't remember how I got home. I was so ill. Like, by the time I got back, it was about 10 AM on Christmas Day. I can just remember, like, pulling up on my drive outside my house, and there was, like, kids riding, like, scooters and bikes around, like, as they do on Christmas Day. And there I am, like, a walking corpse, like, tripping into my house. So I did one of me own LFTs, which came back bold as hell positive. So I had to contact everyone I'd been in contact with and tell them all that it was most likely COVID. I'd had nothing to eat for about 16 hours, so I was starting to become really ravenous as well. Obviously, with me flying to Northern Ireland on Boxing Day, I'd already cleared out the cupboards and the fridge of all the food that was going out of date. So all I was left with in my cupboards was pasta, noodles, rice, and soup. And I mean, you could make a meal out of that, but it was bloody Christmas Day. I didn't want to eat that, do you know what I mean? I wish I'd brought some like leftovers from my mom's in hindsight, but never mind. Anyway, I went on to Amazon Prime, I went on a Tesco delivery, Sainsbury's delivery, Uber Eats groceries. Everywhere was either closed or they were open but with a limited number of drivers, and therefore delivery was like hours away. So anyway, I ordered myself some essentials, you know, like flu relief capsules, paracetamol, them Lemsip sachets that you put in hot water, grape tapes, just things to make us feel a bit better. And that took about 7 hours to get to me on Amazon Prime. I think by that point I'd ran myself a bath, I'd jumped in a bed. I knew I was ill as well because I was under boiling hot water in the bath, but I was still shivering. Like, it was just surreal, the feeling. Like, my body was absolutely freezing, but I was in boiling hot water. I just couldn't get comfortable. I'd wrapped myself up like a sausage roll in me duvet. I had the heating on 30 degrees and I was still shivering away. But then in the next, like, moment, I had all the windows open and I was boiling hot, dripping with sweat. It just— it was unreal. Anyway, I had to ring my partner in Northern Ireland and tell him that unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to come over there the next day. Obviously he was gutted, his family were gutted, and they just wanted us to rest up. But I didn't sleep much at all. I was kind of in and out of sleep all afternoon. As it got to about 6 PM on Christmas Day, I was absolutely starving, so I went on Uber Eats and I ended up ordering myself fish and chips just because it was the only place open. So it was either fish and chips or kebab. It was one of them places that does both. Yummy. So there I am anyway, I'm sat crying into me fish and chips on Christmas Day whilst everyone else is with the families eating Christmas dinner and turkey and stuff. Get the violins out. But I had such a rubbish night's sleep that night. I just couldn't get comfortable. I was in and out of sleep for like 30 minutes at a time. And I remember waking up the next day and my partner ringing me, telling me that he too had had a crap night and he'd woke up feeling awful. He'd done a test and now he was positive as well. You couldn't have made it up. Like, we hadn't caught this at the same time. He'd been in Northern Ireland for about a week before this, so it wasn't like we caught it together. We just coincidentally caught it at the same time in England and Northern Ireland. Anyway, this meant that it was looking likely that he wasn't going to be able to come home as planned because he was going to have to isolate in Northern Ireland and he wouldn't be able to fly. And we wouldn't— we would have to isolate. Basically, he would have to isolate for 7 days over there until he got a negative test. I would have to isolate over here for 7 days. Oh, it was awful. So anyway, not only did I spend Christmas Day and Boxing Day alone, and now had to spend New Year's Eve alone too because he wasn't going to make it home in time. It just wasn't very nice. Anyway, Johnny managed to come home just after New Year's Day, so we had a very delayed Christmas. The tree was still up, the presents were still unopened. It wasn't great, but we had our own little Christmas finally, so I'm still getting over the after-effects of it now. I finally tested negative on the 4th of January, woohoo, which was pretty much my day 10 anyway, so freedom at last, but I think I've completed Netflix, the amount I've bloody watched. I've still got a slight cough too as well, so I apologize in advance if I cough or splutter during this podcast episode. I sound a bit like Macy Gray after smoking 40 a day once I start. Hey, anyway, that's my story. What did you all get up to at New Year's? What resolutions did you all make? What new habits are you all starting and forming? That's what I want to talk about today in today's episode. So for me, I wanted a bit of a challenge that would incorporate sticking to a diet. We all love a diet after Christmas, don't we? Shovelling all them Terry's Chocolate Orange and Lindt balls in our gobs. But yeah, sticking to a diet, getting in more exercise than before, reading more self-development books, drinking more water, and just generally being a better, fitter version of myself. Now, my PT Jorsey, she mentioned previously in a group chat that she was doing something called the 75 Hard Challenge. And I remember Googling it when she put it in the chat thinking, what the actual fuck, Josie, are you mad? Anyway, the challenge itself is 75 days, so 2 and a half months, which when you think about it, 2 and a half months isn't that— it's not that great of a time in the, like, in the drop of the ocean. What's that phrase? The drop of the ocean. You know what I mean. Anyway, it's not a great deal really when you think about it. Like, when I think about it, I've dieted on and off for the past 10 years, so if I can get there in 2 and a half months, do you know what I mean, it's not a great of a deal. Anyway, it involves sticking to this diet every single day, so you're not allowed any cheat meals for the full 75 days. No takeaways, no alcohol, but you've got to work out twice a day for 45 minutes each time. And one of them has to be outside no matter what the weather. You've got to drink 4 liters of water a day, which I understand is a little dangerous because I know you can like swell your brain and stuff like that. But how I'm doing it is I'm drinking 500ml every 2 hours, so it's not that bad. You've got to read 10 pages of nonfiction every day, and you've got to take daily progress photos. So after thinking about it for a while, I just thought, this is exactly what I need. Like, it incorporates pretty much everything I'm wanting to do in my New Year's resolutions. But puts it all into a challenge. So today I'm on day 3 and I'm actually loving life, you know, like I just think I need that accountability and that checklist to keep us on track. And the fact that I know that others are doing it at the same time, I think that really helps as well. So back in the last few months when I've looked into it and gone through my bank statements and things like that, I've been spending about £200 to £250 a month on takeaways. A month on takeaways. So that's like every Tuesday we'll have a Domino's pizza, every Sunday we'll have a Chinese or an Indian. Do you know what I mean? It's absolutely disgusting. So hopefully this gets me through the other side so that I don't feel like I'm trapped in that takeaway cycle weekly. Do you know what I mean? So one of me other New Year's resolutions was to learn more and to read more self-development style books to better my knowledge.. So not only around like self-development, but also around spirituality too, because I think we're always learning, we're always on this journey together, aren't we? It's probably the reason that you're listening to this podcast. So one of the areas that I've started with is learning about the moon. So the moon is always something that I've been fascinated by, but I've never really done much research on. I've always just learned about the phases of the moon, and what to do during the new moon and the full moon, but I've never really fully dived much deeper than that. So I've started reading a book recently called Moonology by Yasmin Boland. I sell it at cannycrystals.co.uk, and it's just £11 if anyone's interested in that, by the way. Shameless plug. And Moonology basically tells you how to get the most out of things like the eclipses, how to harness the power of both the new moon and the full moon, as well as how to consciously create what you desire in your life with the power of the moon. So just from doing a little research and reading, I've found out that in 2022, the most active of the big outer planets is Jupiter. So basically, the bigger, more slowly moving planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, they all provide the big backstory to whatever's going on. And within that backstory, the moon then triggers the different energies that will move in and out of our lives throughout the year. You can think of it like a clock, for example. The bigger outer planets that I just mentioned are the hour hand, then the Sun and the remaining other planets are like the minute hand, and then you've got the Moon, which is the second hand. So although we might be on the 10th hour of the day now, it's what happens right this second that defines our life right that second. But for all of the 10th hour, we might have a bigger backstory of spending that hour at work. If that makes sense. I hope I did, did in my head. Anyway, this year, 2022, the Moon will trigger lots of Jupiter energy in action, which should really take the world out of its slump that it's currently in and take us back to happier days. So for those of you that don't know, Jupiter is all about success, happiness, joy, and wealth. So how do we harness the energy of the Moon, and what do we do with that knowledge?

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On the 2nd of January, it was the first new moon of the year, and you might have seen my TikTok video on this, so go follow us on TikTok if you don't, it's @cannycrystals. But with it being the second day of the year, it kind of aligned perfectly with setting intentions for goals for the year. Out with the old, in with the new, that kind of thing. And it was also the perfect time to transform not only your life but your mindset as well. So for example, you might want to transform, um, I don't know, how you think about money, but not just transform your bank balance, okay? So you're not just transforming your bank balance, you're transforming how you feel and how you think about that money as well. So just grab yourself a bit of scrap paper or a notebook or just something that you can write down on and really give this some thought. What are the top 3 things in your life right now that you want to transform in 2022? So if you could have a magic wand and you could wave that magic wand and have 3 situations improve in your life, what would they be? Would you have better relationships with your family or your partner? Would you have more financial stability? Would you have a better career prospect? Would it just be that your health status has improved? Write down whatever 3 things that you wish to transform. And then once you've done that, basically you'll have a pretty clear idea of what is most important to you, and you can then start living 2022 prioritizing what matters most to you and what supports your values. You can break them 3 situations down into manageable or achievable goals to make it easier for yourself. So for example, if my goal was to improve my wealth and financial stability, how am I going to get there? Will I get a new job? Will I get a second job? Will I start a side hustle or even just work a bit more overtime? Break each one right down, strip it back so that you can see a clear path of how to achieve that goal. And then what I tend to do as well at the start of each year, I'll write myself a letter as if I was writing it to myself on the 31st of December, 2022. So at the end of this year. And I'll write myself a letter as if to say, "Dear Martin, I'm so, so proud of you for achieving X, Y, and Z. We always knew we could do it. I'm so happy for you." That kind of thing. And it's what do you want to achieve through the year, but write it as though you're reading this letter on the last day of 2022. Okay, store that letter away, put it somewhere where you can come back to it at 31st of December 2022, that kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? Just write yourself a letter and write it as if like you're writing a thank you to the universe. Well, thank you to yourself, but thank you for what the universe has done for you in this year. So let's talk about the phases of the moon and the cycle of manifesting, setting intentions, when to let go what no longer serves you, etc., etc. The Moon goes through the exact same 8 phases in the same order every single month. And that goes all the way from New Moon, which is when the Moon is in complete darkness in the sky— that's the start of the cycle— all the way around to the other side, which is like the halfway cycle of the Full Moon. So that's when obviously when you can see all the Moon's surface illuminated, and right the way back around to the other half, back to the New Moon again. And one lunar cycle takes 28 days. So you know fine well that if it was a new moon today, the next full moon will be in 2 weeks' time, and the next new moon after that would be another 2 weeks after that, and that's the full 4-week cycle in total. So let's get to the fun part: how to manifest and use the moon cycles to get what we want out of life. And like I said, this is only something I've recently started getting into, but try it for yourself. It's a great way of manifesting, releasing, all that jazz. Now we know by now that when you want to manifest something, it has to be from the heart, from a place of love. Among the various things that the moon represents in astrology, one is emotion, so that makes it the perfect channel for our feelings. Just like I did, and I'll hold my hands up to this, when people first start to work with the phases of the moon, they focus on the new moon because That's all about the fun stuff and manifesting. But then we forget all about the flip side of that. So we forget about the forgiveness and the release work at the full moon. And that's all part of the bigger cycle. But we just think manifest, manifest, manifest, because as a human race, we're always want, want, want. So when in actual fact, the release work that we should also be doing at full moon has the powerful effect of clearing out all of the negativity within our lives. And who doesn't want that? It's one of the most important things to do to make our new moon wishes come true. So the full moon is a great opportunity and a great time to make peace with ourselves. It often tends to be the most emotionally intense of all the moon's phases. Check it out, like when I'm feeling overwhelmed or swamped and the slightest thing has me in tears, it coincidentally just seems to be when it's a full moon. Emotions tend to be all over the place, and when you think about it, what better way to process these feelings as they come up? You acknowledge each one, you deal with them, and then process them at the time that you feel them at most. So when you work with both the New Moon and the Full Moon, you're getting the full yin-yang effect, and that's why you should totally do all your forgiveness and release work at Full Moon, as well as all of the New Moon wishes and intentions. So let's take a look at what all this means. We all know how to manifest by now and how to set intentions, but what about the flip side? What about surrendering? What about letting go of what no longer serves us? That kind of thing. So it's all about handing back over to the universe any wishes or intentions that haven't yet materialized, because the universe might have a better idea for them. And this is what you should do every full moon. And I know what you're thinking, you're probably like, "Martin, I didn't just dream or wish for something at New Moon and then 2 weeks later give it up just because it hasn't happened." I'm not asking you to. Just acknowledge it, okay? So like, I'm trying to manifest a new car, for example. Every full moon, I'm passing my wishes back to the universe in the hope that it'll guide me down a different path, because what I've tried in the last few weeks clearly hasn't worked yet. So I'm not going to give up on that dream of owning that new car. I'm just going to hand it back and let go of basically what hasn't worked and hand that back to the universe so the universe can see what routes I've tried to get there and to release all associated negative thoughts and get it out of my head that it's not going to work, that kind of thing. I hope that makes sense. It did in me head, so I hope it does. But what do I do on a new moon and a full moon? As I mentioned, I've put a TikTok, and I put TikToks up every 2 weeks basically to guide you through what to do. But on a new moon, I'll write a list of what I'm trying to manifest. I'll write myself some affirmations to incorporate this. So writing things in the present tense like, I am so happy and grateful now that I own a Range Rover because it brings me so much happiness and joy, and I can fit my whole family in there when we go for trips to the beach. Bring it to life. Give it some purpose. Put some feelings in there. Put some emotions in there. What will you use your manifestation for? That helps to give it more purpose and it brings it to life. And if you can attach your emotions to that, you're empowering your manifestations. So like I say, I wrote, "I'm so happy and grateful now that I have a Range Rover." That's fine. You can just write that, but then I bring it to life by saying, because it brings me so much happiness and joy, that makes me feel that happiness and joy. And then I go on to say, I can fit my whole family in there when we go for trips to the beach. That will, it'll make you basically think and basically conjure up these visions in your head of you actually going on these road trips with your family in the car. And that'll help you to basically manifest it quicker. Something along those lines anyway. That was just an example, like I say. But I'll repeat these affirmations daily until the next new moon, and I'll repeat them for the next 28 days. But with my list, I like to burn it at the time of the new moon too. I feel like it sends off my intentions into the universe, and it's almost like a ritual. So that's what I tend to do anyway. When it comes to the full moon, I'll write a letter of everything that I want to release. So every single person that no longer serves me in my life, Every situation that I no longer get any joy from. Anything that you no longer want or need, just write it down. Thank the universe for being sent that and let it go. By letting go, as you know by now, you're making room for the universe to give you more. Like that episode that I spoke about clearing out my wardrobe. So as weird as it was, I thanked each item of my clothing that no longer fit us. Because I'd worn them at some point, so I was thanking them and basically then letting them go, and this made more room for more clothes to come into my life. It's a weird concept to get your head around at first, I understand that, but it does work. Because of the star signs that January falls under, the best things for you to do this month are to reevaluate your life, make contact with someone that you need to sort things out with, and to set your professional goals for 2022. So this is the perfect time to do it as well, with it being the start of the new year. It's a clean slate, it's a fresh start. This tends to be what people do anyway at this time of the year. So when the next full moon, when it comes here in the UK, it's, um, 23:48 on the night of the 17th of January. So on the next full moon, I'll be posting a video on TikTok the day before with details on what I'll be doing any ideas of what you can do too, just to get the most out of it. So watch out for that. I think I've got just enough time as well today to answer a question from me Instagram that someone asked us this week. Where are we? Olivia Phoebe Thompson, she asked, how did the new moon on the 2nd help you with your New Year's resolutions? So like I mentioned, me New Year's resolutions were to get fitter and stronger in the gym, to stick to me diet, to read, to learn more. So at the time of the new moon, I'd wrote myself a list of my priorities for 2022, including those goals. But then I also wrote down some affirmations incorporating these, which I'm repeating to myself basically 2-3 times a day just to ensure that they're sinking into my brain. And I burnt my list of priorities, and as I did, I visualized the words from the paper traveling up into the universe through the smoke and I really felt in me heart that my prayers were being basically answered, and I felt the feelings of joy and happiness as though they had already happened and that they were already here. And then at the full moon in a couple of weeks' time, like I say, on January the 17th, I think I said it was, I let go of all feelings of unhappiness around the fact that I'm on a diet. I'll let go of unhappiness feelings about the fact that me muscles will be constantly aching, that kind of thing. Just getting rid of any negativity from my goals, and that way I can only concentrate on the positives. And when you concentrate on the positives, I can ensure that my goals will be achieved perfectly. I hope that answers your question, Olivia, and thanks for sending that through as well. If anyone else has any other questions, feel free to DM us on Instagram or TikTok @conniecrystals. Alternatively, you can contact me on my personal, which is @marttweedy. All links are in the show notes. Let us know what types of topics you'd want me to cover next week as well. I love to hear from you. And if you're listening on Spotify, by the way, you can now rate my podcast on there as well, which I would absolutely love for you to do, obviously. So if you type in Kenny Crystals into Spotify and you go to my page, you know where all the episodes are listed, there's a rating button that's underneath the podcast logo at the top left. Please drop us a rating. I would absolutely love you forever. Uh, don't forget as well, if you're listening on Apple or Google, you can also leave a full-blown review. Go wild! I do read every single one of them and they're all super lush, so thank you so, so much. I haven't had a negative, uh, review yet. I've probably just jinxed myself there, but they are lovely and I love them. Thank you so much. Now let's all go write down our goals for 2022 and get manifesting.

Investing.

I'll speak to you all next week, guys, but thank you so much for joining, and happy new year. Bye!

You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank? Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining alfresco or relaxing poolside? Wayfair has everything you need to prep your space. Shop now and save up to 70% off during Wayfair's Fourth of July Clearance. Score huge deals on outdoor furniture, area rugs, and more. We're talking thousands of products for every style and budget. Plus, surprise flash deals July 6th. Don't wait. Shop Wayfair's Fourth of July Clearance now through July 6th at wayfair.com.

Wayfair.

Every style. Every home.