Flourish Holiday Update + Green Gifts
This time of year is always a wild mashup of celebration in our family: Thanksgiving, my birthday, our wedding anniversary and Rich’s birthday all within the same week.
Normally we run away for a romantic weekend (with big gratitude to Rich’s sisters who drive Rosetta to Nutcracker rehearsal and otherwise support and feed our three teenagers while we are gone.)
We weren’t able to go last year as we were deep in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, so this year’s getaway to Athens GA, was extra sweet. Athens is the cutest college town in the South (at least according to the BBC) and we spent time in quirky restaurants, vintage bookstores and a huge botanical garden: my kind of birthday.
Honestly, I love the festive season but every year I feel like I have to reimagine it all over again depending on what I want and need, and what is happening with my children and extended family.
Last year our Christmas decorations got all wet in the flood and we basically all had to live in half our house for four months -- while the downstairs, including our children’s bedrooms, was rebuilt.
One of the most moving and supportive kindnesses shown to us during this time came when my extended Texan family got together to buy us new Christmas decorations. Now as I get those pieces out, I feel such an extra dose of love, connection and gratitude as we enjoy them again, only this time in the comfort of our newly remodeled and fully-functional home.
Maybe because of the challenges of last year, I am focused this holiday season on slowing and savoring: think dried orange slice garlands, fires in our wood burning stove, and other homemade crafts. We are also hoping to add more meaning to our family gifting by focusing on experiences and fun vintage or refurbished treasures like a gorgeous green and gold covered book on spiritual awakenings from the 1880s that I picked up on my birthday in Athens.
What about you -- where are you finding inspiration this holiday season?
This fall one of the things I’m grateful for and celebrating is the launch of my podcast Inner Ecology, after a multi-year germination process.
I am LOVING hearing back from listeners and just released the fourth episode all about relationships: a dose of extra support as we turn more fully into the holiday season. You can listen right here.
Also if gift-giving is part of your holiday celebration I want to share some easy gift options for you that also support a women-owned business and enable me to offer coaching scholarships to others.
You can read about and purchase those gift options below.
Warmly, Courtney
Green Gift Ideas
As I’ve been puttering around the tiny farm the last few days, I have been thinking of how to offer gift options this year in the way that feels the most fun and easeful.
1) Gift option one: The Flourish Formula: An Overachiever's Guide to Slowing Down & Accomplishing More. I love books and the right book at the right time can offer real solace. In The Flourish Formula, I offer concrete steps on how to best use our most precious resource: our time. The book also guides readers through my favorite methods for identifying and working with your Enneagram Type, and includes the link to sign up for an online 'flourish kit' of bonus goodies. There are so many practices in The Flourish Formula -- you can read it in one go or jump to the sections that are most helpful to you. In fact, I've heard from more than one reader who likes to re-read their copy when they need a lift or are feeling squeezed by life. I wrote the book to be a friend and it makes me so happy to hear that it feels this way to others. You can order your copy on Amazon through the link above or request a copy through your local bookstore.
2) Gift Option Two: Book a Private Coaching Session. I don’t open these up very often, but sometimes we just need a taste of something new or an easy way to get started, so I’m opening 5 of these for holiday gifts (don't forget about getting yourself something special :) As a holiday bonus and to make it more fun, in addition to the full hour of 1:1 support (including custom recommended resources and fieldwork practices and the option of recording your session) you can also choose any audio lesson or written guide from my self-paced coaching program, Sunshine in a Bottle. (I can also recommend one that I think would be a good fit.) This is a very personal gift with a fun side of teaching from the best nature + coaching resources I've gathered from almost 15 years in this field. Price $250
Coaching is personal. Since it has been a while since I’ve opened these one on one gift sessions, I wanted to reintroduce how I approach it.
Coaching is a transformational relationship. As a certified Wayfinder coach, I tend to work with high functioning people who are often the ones that others turn to. Most clients reach out to me in search of a neutral, skilled source of support for THEM, especially when feeling an inner nudge toward change (jobs, locations, relationships, deeper purpose etc.) I am a human-to-resource matchmaker and have a robust personal growth library. A client recently told me that a session with me is like a combination of a virtual hug and a spreadsheet, a comment that made me smile. I appreciate that to grow consciously we all need emotional support AND a plan. The main fruits I see from coaching are RELIEF and CLARITY. As in "Thank God, this question/challenge/stuck place is out of my head, aired out, and I understand where I am and where I'm going."
There is a lot more I could say about what coaching is but one final component I want to mention now that defines my approach is the mantra "live it to give it." Meaning I don’t recommend any tools for others that I haven’t already investigated and used myself and found deeply resonant. I have also invested in a LOT of coaching myself, as well as coaching over 230 thoughtful individual clients through their own professional and personal expansions over the last 12+ years I have owned my own coaching practice. I know what it is like to feel an inner nudge that scares you or to hear the invitation to a dream that you don't quite know what to do with. And I also know how very much better it feels to grow with support.
I would love for you to snap up one these sessions for you or a loved one. (Once you purchase I'll send you an email with a link to my calendar to find a good time for our conversation. I have a few coaching spots left in December and several in January.)
I'm so excited to see who shows up for these sessions!
Courtney
PS If you have any questions you can reach me at cp@courtneypinkerton.com.
PPS If you know someone who can't afford coaching but would benefit from it, please make them aware of my coaching awards. Details and application link are provided in the Q and A section at the bottom of the Sunshine in a Bottle page here.
Courtney Pinkerton (she/her)
Courtney combines nature and coaching resources to help clients boost resiliency, avoid burnout and create their legacy work and lives. She is a is a certified Wayfinder coach and member of the Climate Coaching Alliance. Courtney holds Masters of Divinity and Public Policy from Harvard and is the author of the Amazon best-seller The Flourish Formula: An Overachiever's Guide to Slowing Down and Accomplishing More. She lives with her husband and three children on Apple Balm Tiny Farm near Asheville, North Carolina.
