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Spring into Stories – Rough Draft Creative Writing Challenge 2025

Spring is here in this “real time” and place of Cologne, Germany in April, 2025 and it’s time for me to take on another creative writing challenge!

Also want to accomplish something artistic this month? There are a lot of ways to make the process fun with support and accountability from others, and here I’m sharing how I’ll be doing so this season (and how I keep my writing practices going on all year).

Writing Challenge Journey

Here’s the current state of my collected stories: I know I have a lot of hand-written tales (mostly true, some fictional) in my archived notebooks, and when I return to Cologne in May, I would like to do more “research” into my own notes and journals.

In the meantime I am so lucky as to have the opportunity to be traveling to the places of my birth (Portland, Oregon, where I also spent some years as an adult) and growing up (Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i) and will have the chance to reflect and talk story with family and dear friends and come up with new ideas for stories and rough drafts.

In recent years I’ve been working on my creative writing for personal and professional purposes, and the more I am able to practice, the better and more complete, more articulate it will become.

Pre-2019

Journaling, essay-writing, poems, the fanciful stories of childhood, the drama of my adolescence and early adulthood, academia, artistic creations were captured, more-or-less consistently in notebooks. My archives will serve to provide source material and inspiration along with dreams, philosophy and studies, and new inputs.

2019

In 2019 I wrote poetry and fiction, participating in my first and only National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo in November. I went on to write about that experience on the blog in 2023, when introducing that year’s challenge.

2020

In August of 2020 I sent my first weekly Email Newsletter and September I started posting articles (14 in the first year) to the blog here at ablythecoach.com. Those creations, as well as podcasting and sharing videos on YouTube became my focus that year.

2021

In 2021 I embarked on a daily haiku-writing challenge and focused for the year on poetry along with the projects I started the previous year (45 blog articles) and dancing, of course!

2022

This year included a lot of Bullet Journaling, consistent Email Newsletters, and publishing 28 articles to the blog.

2023

In July of 2023, I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo, which the objective of working on true, Memoir-type stories that illuminate my lessons and teaching, the beauty of the human experience.

For this, I wrote 5 short stories (2,602 words), came up with 38 ideas of stories I’d like to work on from life, and published 2 of that year’s 14 articles, “Let’s Write! Camp NaNoWriMo & Creative Structure” and “Writing True Stories to Reflect & Connect.” Journaling and Email Newsletters were also going strong.

2023 Camp NaNo Bullet Journal spread: goals, tracking, motivation and celebration
2024

In 2024 I participated in Camp NaNo again in July, writing 1 story (1,188 words) and that year I also published 30 articles and regular weekly emails.

Camp NaNo 2024 Goals: Acorns, Drafts, Collecting Stories, Ideas, Tools

2025 Goals

This month’s writing challenge is connected to my larger artistic goals for the year as well, which I wrote about in the Twenty 25s in 2025 article.

In fact, targets #2-7 are all writing-related: Blog Articles about dance, mindful movement, creativity, lifelong learning, coaching, and joyful living, Email Newsletters sharing my latest creations and offerings and valuable resources from other creators, Poems, Letters, Daily Logs, and Morning Pages being key to all of my creative and connective processes.

April 2025 Writing Targets

Unfortunately, this year I hesitate to participate officially in National Novel Writing Month, Camp NaNoWriMo in April, July, or otherwise, due to grave issues that nonprofit organization has had. YouTube is full of videos from authors about why they are no longer affiliated or participating in NaNo, such as Jenna the Soul Writer who posted this video recently, “Yet Writers Keep on Writing Onward (No Mo NaNoWriMo),” citing Sarra Cannon among others.

It is unfortunate that NaNoWriMo no longer seems to be a good option, since so many writers have gotten their start with such programs and types of support. But thankfully, there are still such structures and communities available, a couple of which share below under Writing Tools.

As with previous writing challenges, I intend to use the month of inspiration and accountability as an opportunity to both study and practice storytelling technique.

Here are my goals for April, developing habits that will continue to enrich my creative practice and life:

  • Daily Story Ideas or “Acorns” (30), collect them in the spreadsheet I created last year
  • Weekly Short Story Rough Drafts (4), amounting to over 2,025 Words
  • Share about it on the Blog & Social Media @ablythecoach

Writing Tools

While brainstorming and writing my own creative true stories last July, I recorded this video about storytelling tools & resources that might support you in writing your own stories:

Writing, Memoir & Storytelling Tools video on YouTube

Books

Go old school and get inspiration from one or more of the many books on writing, such as:

  • No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
  • Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
  • Writing the Life Poetic by Sage Cohen
April buds on the trees with a dramatic sky in Cologne, popping like story ideas

Community Writing Challenges

Being in community with other writers, whether sharing drafts, participating in writing sprints or concentrated challenges and other collaboration can be what makes the difference between aspiring and doing the thing!

I’ve personally found signing up for free challenges that take place over a week or a month’s time and build a creative network to be incredibly valuable, so I’ll keep joining in when I can, this month and possibly again this year and in the future.

Heart Breathings Rough Draft Challenge

Sarra Cannon’s Heart Breathings Rough Draft Challenge in April, for which you can set your own writing goal along with the Heart Breathings community is one alternative to NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNo/Memoir, with a simple tracking website which participants may use to record goals and share progress on projects.

there are various tiers based on desired word count, and I’m opting in for “Diamond” or choose-your-own challenge (can be words, hours, minutes, etc.).

Rough Draft Month

While looking into the Rough Draft Challenge above, I also stumbled into Rough Draft Month, who seem to have a very nice website, and state: “Rough Draft is a 30-Day Creative Challenge That Fits Your Unique Project. Join Us for the Next #RDMO in June, 2025.” Perhaps I will, though typically July works a bit better due to Summer holidays…

Magnolia petals falling in a garden in Cologne, blooming like ideas this season

Questions for Reflection

  • How do you collect your stories, personal or fictional?
  • Which of your stories will you tell first?
  • In what format and to what audience (if any) do you wish to share your creation?
  • Will you join me in writing a story, poem, or other draft this month?
  • What resources of support do you have access to?
  • How can I help you take this creative leap?

Resources for Further Exploration

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!

Take care of yourself and keep moving mindfully, let me know how if I can be of service, would love to see you in my email newsletter or on social media as well.

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education

February was for Demonstrating & Dancing, Love, Karneval & Eating Disorders Awareness – 2025 Month 2 Reflection

February was for protest & partying, demonstrating & dancing, love, Eating Disorders Awareness Week & Koeln Karneval!

The first blossoms emerged from the earth, filling me with excitement to flower forth with you this season.

“Alaaf!” from Koeln Karneval, a premier high-kicking & flying Tanzcorps take stage

Festive February

Winter has been turning into Spring here in Germany, we celebrated several friend and family birthdays last month as well as, Karneval and Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Because of its role in my creative process, journaling has become a part of my YouTube channel content along with dance, yoga, and joyful living. Here’s an update on what I’ve been up to in my notebooks and life in February 2025:

February 2025 Flip & Reflection video on YouTube

Bullet Journaling & Planning

The video above is a flip-through of the month in my Seasonal Book including goals, glows, media favorites, and events I recorded along the way.

I shared my initial February setup on Instagram here, updated my Monthly, Weekly, and Daily Logs, Annual Collections, and set up my March spreads (will share my Celestial March spread inspired by @jashiicorrin soon) over the course of the month.

Wrote my Morning Pages and notes with new inks in my fountain pens and savored the fresh colors of the changing season in nature and culture.

Made exciting plans for future events such as International Women’s Day March 8th, travels and special workshops for Spring in April and beyond.

Teaching & Coaching

Regular Mindful Movement classes in Balletlicious Ballet Barre+ and Yummy Gentle Yoga, studio classes in Ballet, and my “Feel Good” wellness elective continued, and though many students suffered from Spring colds (me too!), I started to feel the energy of warmer weather return. By popular demand, am returning to teaching a beginner Hip Hop elective course as well, which is a different sort of challenge but fun to hear new music and create choreography together.

There is currently one coaching slot available in my weekly schedule, and in February I started planning upcoming offerings such as coaching sample sessions (message to schedule), workshops, and guest teaching in Portland, Oregon, Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, and Cologne, Germany this Spring!

Writing & Publishing Articles

In February I published 4 articles to the blog here at ablythecoach.com, and it is a great place to find out what I am up as well as other experts and creators who I recommend.

February’s new articles:

Bullet Journal, Ditty Bag Fountain Pen Case, Pen Case, Elster the LAMY AL Star

Filming & Sharing Videos

I didn’t quite reach 1,000 subscribers to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel in February, but got a bit nearer and hope to attain this milestone early in 2025.

The practice of sharing my work, my favorite things, and refining my voice through sharing videos is personally valuable to me, as well as an opportunity to engage with likeminded community online and in-person.

I published 4 videos to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel in February on the topics of dance, creativity, and joyful living:

FLOAT! 2025 Word of the Year video
Peek in my Pen Case Ditty Bag video
Writing Memoir & Storytelling Tools video
International Women’s Day 2025 Statement video, in preparation for 8th of March

Connecting: Email & Social Media

The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing about as well as work from others that I believe to be of value for fellow creatives is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. It lights me up to see new subscribers there as well as responses to me missives.

I sent 4 Email Newsletters in February:

In addition, I posted 4 times to Instagram, may have still been a little burnt out on that after sharing every single day for #dancedailydecember and wary about too much time on social media with the political drama unfolding. However, it is always my honor to be connected to you there, here, online and in-person!

Creative Challenges

In February I completed several projects, including my 2024 Reflection & Completion process, planning 2025 especially Quarter 1, and serving as an Eating Disorders Awareness Week collaborator for the 3rd year in a row.

This in addition to writing in my journals, playing with my fountain pens & inks, publishing articles, creating syllabi, improvisations and choreography, video filming and editing.

Proud to have been an Eating Disorders Awareness week collaborator again this year

Valentine’s Love

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate! I do enjoy romantic love and have a marvelous partner myself, regardless of dating or relationship status, sexual desire or orientation, encourage a Self-Love month: I am the only one I know will be with me my whole life long and I like time with myself!  💝

Though we don’t exchange presents on Valentine’s Day, Ela and I do give each other gifts at other times, such as the Pen Case/Ditty Bag Ela she made to hold my growing fountain pen collection. It is beautifully designed and crafted (bespoke!) and also upcycled from a Levi’s shirt arm and leather scraps, so I feel good about protecting the environment in a small way while protecting my pens.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week Collaborator

Speaking of self-love, our relationships with body, food, and eating are an important part of this acceptance and care. Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW), an annual campaign to educate the public about the realities of eating disorders and to provide hope and visibility to individuals and loved ones impacted.

In February I shared about Eating Disorders Awareness Week in my classes and on social media, and I published a new article with resources I’ve found helpful on the topic: Building a Healthy Relationship with Body & Food – Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025.

Eating disorders continue to be the most fatal of mental health conditions, especially for young people, so it is important to keep providing education and treatment.

Twenty 25s in 2025

Having found such a structure useful in 2023 and 2024, for 2025 I reduced the number of categories counted to 20, and raised the actions by one for a catchy “Twenty 25s in 2025.”

In February, I took actions and tracked them, and posted about my Twenty 25s to the blog.

This creative challenge is a playful way to track various leading metrics, projects and activities I wish to keep an eye on, and since some of the actions are daily, I reached 25 actions in the month of January (Daily Logs, Yoga Practice Sessions, Meditation, Deutsch, Gratitude & Abundance) and I will provide another update in my March & Quarter 1 Reflection.

We took random dates, not just Valentine’s day, such as to 5 Guys & the bookstore

Media Musings

My February in reading, listening, and viewing pleasures:

Art & Culture

February’s Cultural highlights included much Koeln Karneval celebration: Karneval Tanzcorps / Dance Corps in action at closed shows and coming up soon in the parades all around town are always a treat! An amazingly acrobatic mix of gymnastic lifts, can can kicks, and precisely synchronized movement with a tongue-in-cheek Cologne flavor.

We also got out for Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday traditionally reserved for the ladies in the community to get out and party, an alternative masked ball, and viewed the big Rosenmontag Parade on television (satire, political commentary, music, and just plain fun and it was miraculously sunny this year!). When the time came for our neighborhood’s parade, I had unfortunately fallen sick, but luckily I could send Ela and friends to represent and collect a candy stash.

Books & Reading

Books Read

Still reading along on my nonfiction picks (poetry, scripture, personal growth), and I completed one novel in February:

  • Finished ​The Wishing Game​ by Meg Schaffer, liked the story and characters, but did not enjoy the writing style personally
Articles Read
  • “Do Not Obey In Advance: A Moral Crisis in Arts Funding” by grant-writer, Whitman College classmate and friend Claire Willett relays horrifying news, but also contains informative links and actionable steps to take, especially relevant to the arts and nonprofit funding
  • “What do we do now?” article on Substack by Katy Pyle, Ballez creator, choreographer & dancer

Listening Highlights

Favorite things heard over the course of the month go here, such as concerts, songs, pieces of music, playlists, podcasts and more.

Music: Songs, Playlists & Albums
  • My updated Balletlicious Barre+ Dance Playlist on YouTube continued to inspire movement classes
  • “Romeo & Juliet” Ballet “Dance of the Knights” music made for expressive and powerful movement accompaniment
  • I want to create an updated playlist of favorite Koeln Karneval Songs on YouTube and it will be based on this one I made on Spotify previously. Lines such as “Die Liebe und das Leben und die Freiheit und der Dom…” (“Love and life and freedom and the cathedral”), “alles nicht so schlimm, wenn wir zusammen sind” (“everything is not so bad when we are together”), “Solange wir noch am Leben sind…tanzen wir” (“as long as we are still alive…we dance”) speak to my heart
Podcasts

“10 Steps to Unshakeable Confidence” from the Good Life Project podcast is full of goodness and I’ll likely cite it in a future blog…

Glows & Media spread in my February Bullet Journal

Viewing Highlights

Film

Favorite Movies watched in February:

  • “American Fiction” Film was thought-provoking, in which “A novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain.”
Series

Series streamed in February:

  • “Hacks” Comedy-Drama series “Explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old” and I found it funny, fresh, and incisive
  • “Ghosts” new comedy series was the good laugh we needed to get us through, I especially delighted in the banter between time periods
  • “Clean Slate” directed by and starring Laverne Cox is styled like a cute classic sitcom, but handles themes relevant today
  • “American Murderer: Gabby Petito” series is a chilling true crime, sad and recent with so much footage from the victim herself, poor Gabby only ever got to post one video on her YouTube channel
YouTube Videos

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show was a rocking good time and a powerful political statement about “the wrong guy.”

Questions for Reflection

  • What February/last month’s memories do you want to hold on to?
  • What are you celebrating?
  • What are you protesting?
  • What seeds are you planting which you hope will bloom in the coming months?
  • What are your favorite Spring treats?
February brought the first blooms of the year, above Crocuses in the sunshine

Resources for Further Exploration

My other monthly reflections for 2025, special workshops and collaborations in dance, coaching, creative living and more coming soon.

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!

Take care of yourself and keep moving mindfully, let me know how if I can be of service, would love to see you in my email newsletter or on social media as well.

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education

Spring Flings & Bright Things: a Bucket List of Fresh, Joyful Seasonal Experiences

Spring is a season I find easier to embrace than the cold winter, having waited through the dark part of the year for its arrival seemingly with baited breath.

Being a (late) spring baby myself, I’ve always been especially drawn to the season, the themes of new life, rebirth, emergence, vitality, fertility, the increasing warmth and light, and joy! From the first early blossoms and rays of Sun leading up to the Spring Equinox, to the long, bright days of the Summer Solstice, I do my best to make the most of this richly potent season of growth and development.

I certainly don’t do all of these things every year, not even close, but when I want to revel a bit in this fleetingly gorgeous season, I can look to these resources for activities to choose from that I know I love.

Think of it as a bucket list, a collection of self-care and creative treasures, or a way to connect with the rhythm of the seasons and nature.

In Spring it’s time to bloom!

Spring Things Bucket List Bullet Journal spread

Let’s Have a Spring Fling!

Seasonal experiences such as reading, listening, viewing, tasty treats, crafting and creative themes delight my students and also my own inner Artist Child! When I sample a few of my favorite experiences of the Spring (and each successive season), I feel I have fully enjoyed and made the best of this time of year, am better ready to embrace the change that continues to come.

Experiences

Late February through June feel like springtime here in the Northern Hemisphere, and my current base of Cologne, Germany is a wonderful vantage point from which to observe the emergence of fresh new life. Both the weather and human and animal activity levels pick up, energy tends to rise, and it can get really quite hectic with events, holidays, and all the tending required to bring our planted seeds, metaphorical and real, to fruition.

Holidays & Special Events

  • Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day in March
  • Ramadan
  • Lent into Easter
  • Camp NaNoWriMo or Sarra Cannon’s Rough Draft Challenge in April, for which you can set your own writing goal along with the Heart Breathings community
  • Poetry Month in April
  • Earth Day in April
  • Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
  • Coaching Week in May
  • PRIDE Month in June
  • Juneteenth, World Refugees Day
March quote from Sara Coleridge from the Gratitude App

Traditions & Activities

  1. Eat Chocolate Bunnies
  2. Dye Eggs
  3. Bake & Decorate Spring Cookies
  4. Tarot Readings, reflection, intuition
  5. Wardrobe Refresh, Declutter
  6. Spring Clean
  7. Spring Equinox Ritual, Altar (Ostara altar), Meditation, Crystals & Magic
  8. Switch meditation background (Wind in Spring/Summer, Fire in Fall/Winter)
  9. Easter Sunrise Service
  10. Strawberry picking
  11. Birdwatching, Walks, Picnics
  12. Visit Botanical Gardens
  13. Planting Seeds: Literal and/or Figurative and tending them as they grow

Food & Eating

One of my personal favorite ways to celebrate every season, holiday, and life in general! Not necessarily the most ambitious cook or baker, but I’ve got a few standbys that I make myself, others I just buy and enjoy that others have prepared.

A few of my favorite edible Spring treats:

  • Baking & Decorating Easter Cookies
  • Decorating & Eating Easter Eggs
  • Egg Salad, Devilled Eggs
  • Eggnog
  • Strawberry Shortcake
  • Chocolate Bunnies (the most delicious shape milk chocolate can take, I don’t make the rules)
  • Jelly Beans
  • Malted Milk Eggs
April quote from Vita Sackville-West on the Gratitude app

Inspirational Spring Themes

Creative Dance/Yoga/Movement Themes

For personal and creative exploration, alone or with children and people of all ages:

  • Seeds, Roots, Sprouting, Growth & Tending
  • Flowers – early Spring Snow Drops, Crocuses, Daffodils, Cherry & Apple Blossoms…
  • Rainbows 🌈
  • Weather: Rain, Sunshine, Wind, Storms
  • Leprechauns + Gold, Shamrocks
  • Animals, Birth, Eggs, Crysalis
  • Butterflies 🦋
  • Dragonflies
  • Ladybugs
  • Grasshoppers
  • Honey Bees
  • Caterpillars, Inchworms
  • Birds, Pigeon, Eagle, Crow
  • Bunnies, Peter Cottontail
  • Baby Chicks & Ducklings
  • New Life, Bright Green Leaves
  • “Sleeping Beauty,” waiting

Spring Practices

As the Earth wakens to life, this time of year can be a great time to emerge from our own hibernation with mindful and joyful movements.

Ballet & Creative Dance

Practice videos available on the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel:

Butterfly Creative Ballet Arms
Butterfly Creative Ballet Port de Bras – upper body video on YouTube
Balletlicious Seated Butterflies Creative Stretch
Balletlicious Seated Butterflies Creative Stretch video on YouTube
Butterfly Catching Creative Dance Exploration & Warmup
Butterfly Catching Creative Dance Exploration video on YouTube
Spring Surprise Adagio
Spring Surprise Adagio is a Spring-appropriate ballet centre exercise

Yoga & Meditation

Spring Meditation & Visualization to Tend & Bloom
Spring & Equinox Meditation – Gentle Flower Movements & Reflection video on YouTube

In the above video, I wish you a Happy Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere in real time, Autumn in the Southern, arriving in late March, and a time of celebrations of growth in many cultures.

As the hours of daylight increase, so can our energy. In this video we practice about 5 minutes of gentle movement, breathwork, and visualization, then 5 minutes of questions for contemplation or written reflection which you may then bring into action.

You may use this quiet moment and reflection questions as part of your Spring ritual, to tend to all areas of your life at this time of rich potential, in order to bloom bountifully in the coming season.

Spring Fresh Seated Yoga Practice 20-Minute Chair Stretch
Spring Fresh Seated Yoga Practice Gentle 20 Minute Chair Stretch video on YouTube
Blossom Visualization 60-Minute Yoga Practice
Blossom Visualization Yoga is a one-hour gentle practice video on YouTube
Surya Namaskar – Yoga Sun Salutations
Surya Namaskar – Sun salutations A & B Yoga Practice video on YouTube

We can also summon the solar energy of the season with Sun Salutations and by being creative with our home yoga & mindful movement practice.

Spring Yoga & Meditation from other creators

Creative Planning

Bullet Journaling is my main crafty hobby, and in this season I am enjoying collaging with origami papers and gathered ephemera, stamping, choosing color palettes, and evoking a playful and festive mood that motivates me to plan, reflect, and record thoughts about my life.

Cherry Blossoms quote by Alice Poon on the Tide app

Listening

Music

Nothing sets a mood more quickly than putting on suitable music.

Playlists By Me
Songs
  1. “Butterfly” by Daigo Hanada is a favorite track for ballet and dance classes with a light and mellow feel
  2. “Let’s Do It” by Louis Armstrong: let’s fall in love!
  3. “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake is pretty and wistful like April
Podcasts about Springtime

Reading & Books

Fiction Series

  1. Veronica Speedwell Mysteries by Deanna Raybourn feature a lepidopterist heroine, great for Spring
  2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery depicts all of the seasons beautifully

Nonfiction

Stories & Fairytales

In my Sleeping Beauty Ballet Story & Music video on YouTube below, I detail how I use the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” in ballet and creative dance education for children and adults, including book and music recommendations.

Sleeping Beauty Ballet Story & Music video on YouTube

Poems

Poems are an inspiration to me in all seasons, and most especially Spring. As a celebration of late Spring bounty and my upcoming birthday, I recorded a reading of these verses: “Spring” & “Seven White Butterflies” by Mary Oliver, “To the Thawing Wind” by Robert Frost, “Lenten” by Olga Braumas, and “Dirty Poem” by Marge Piercy.

One resource I find incredibly useful in my dance, choreography, teaching and yoga practices, is the deliciousness of exploring visualization.

Along with a solid technical foundation, imagery helps bring lush texture, and diverse qualities to movement, developing artistry. The imagination feeds us as humans and creators. How important the life of the mind is to us these days, and any time we can’t explore the outside world as much as we might like or when we need to become present to our internal landscape.

As mindfulness teacher Dandapani has stated, “Visualization is a big part of a meditation practice.”

Spring Poetry Selections
Spring Poetry Favorites
  • “Spring” & “Seven White Butterflies” by Mary Oliver
  • “To the Thawing Wind” by Robert Frost
  • “Lenten” by Olga Braumas
  • “Dirty Poem” by Marge Piercy
  • “To Free the Heart” by Francis C. Anderson, Jr.
  • “Invitation to Love” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
  • “Fragile and Rooted” by Carolyn S. Owen-Towle
  • “In Time of Silver Rain” by Langston Hughes
Articles with Recommendations for Spring
Change and wildflowers quote from John Steinbeck on the Tide app

Viewing

Compared to my list of Fall Films & Movies, Reading & Books, Spring tends more towards action and outdoors wherever possible, less so indoor reading and watching.

Movies

  1. “The Sound of Music”
  2. “Mary Poppins”
  3. “You’ve Got Mail”
  4. “Ever After”
  5. “A Bug’s Life”
  6. “The Secret Garden”

YouTube Videos from other creators

An early March violet grows in an urban environment
An bold and hopeful early March violet in an urban environment in Cologne, Germany

Questions for Reflection

  • What seed(s) have I planted/will I plant this season?
  • How will I tend to them (and myself, and others) to flourish this season?
  • Which fruits do you hope to harvest as a result of your labors during this time of growth?
  • What weeding/spring cleaning will help make the way?
  • What first small baby step will I take today?
  • Which holidays do you celebrate in the Spring and Summer?
  • What readings, resources, pieces of music, viewing should I add to my Spring Bucket List?

Resources for Further Exploration

Thank you for reading, for being, and for moving with me, in spirit or in fact. Take care of yourself, keep moving mindfully, and let me know how I can be of service!

I hope you savor the delights of spring and blossom in the world.

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst

they/them or she/her

A Blythe Coach: @ablythecoach

helping multi-passionate creatives take leaps of faith

DISCLAIMER: A Blythe Coach recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recommendations and follow all safety instructions before beginning any exercise program. When participating in any exercise or exercise program, there is the possibility of physical injury. If you engage in this exercise or exercise program, you agree that you do so at your own risk, are voluntarily participating in these activities, assume all risk of injury to yourself.

January was Gently Jumping into the New Year – 2025 Month 1 Reflection

In January I enjoyed a reflective and celebratory staycation, lots of teaching, trying new things, and planning an extraordinary 2025!

My intention for a “Gentle January” held true, even as a new cycle of teaching, coaching, and experiences began.

Snowy train tracks in Cologne in January 2025, this winter was my snowiest so far!

Gentle January

My annual review process continues into the New Year, as I prefer to reflect on the final month once it is complete and I respect however long my completion process takes in its various forms. This year the whole of January was dedicated to 2024 reflections and 2025 intention-setting, so I first published those articles and videos in February.

We had a festive Silvester/NYE into a restful and reflective New Year’s Day, played Fussball/Soccer Billiards with friends for the first time, saw lots of pretty Snow (the snowiest winter so far since I moved to Germany), returned to learning Tango, and attended Live Art at a local Gallery.

Protests leading up to German election began and would continue in February, important times to defend democracy and human rights!

Had a nice cozy staycation into the New Year, allowing time for my Annual Reflections process, Planning my Word of the Year, Projects/Campaigns/Challenges, Twenty 25s, and so forth.

January 2025 Flip & Review – Creative Bullet Journal video on YouTube

Bullet Journaling & Planning

The above YouTube Video is a flip-through of the month in my Seasonal Book including goals, glows, media favorites, and events I recorded along the way.

I shared my initial setup on Instagram here and began to update my Monthly, Weekly, and Daily logs, Annual Collections, and set up my February and 2025 Annual Book spreads. Wintery themes of snowflakes, pinecones and evergreens, and cozy squirrels continued.

Chose my Word of the Year and started to put together my opening BuJo spread in my Annual Book with a poem, developing themes and projects, visual design theme of “Golden Art Deco.” Played a lot with my new ink samples in my fountain pens.

Another major highlight of month one was making travel arrangements for our next US visit, purchasing plane tickets to be in Portland, Oregon and Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i in the spring.

The scene New Year’s Day: in bed with poetry, pens & journals

Teaching & Coaching

Regular Mindful Movement classes in Balletlicious Ballet Barre+ and Yummy Gentle Yoga continued throughout, and studio classes in Ballet started up again, with folks slowly returning from their own year’s transition revels.

Lots to learn for me and my students, with new grades/syllabi (Grade 2 & 4) commencing after successful completion of their Royal Academy of Dancing exams.

There is currently one coaching slot available, and I will keep you posted on further offerings as they come together!

Writing & Publishing Articles

This year, writing and sharing resources to my blog at ablythecoach.com will continue to be a top priority, and it is a great place to find out what I am up as well as other experts and creators who I recommend.

In January I published two articles to the blog:

January BuJo Setup after-the-pen with goals, actions, and events

Filming & Sharing Videos

I didn’t quite reach 1,000 subscribers to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel in January, but got a bit nearer and hope to attain this milestone early in 2025.

The practice of sharing my work, my favorite things, and refining my voice is personally valuable, as well as an opportunity to engage with likeminded community online and in-person.

I published 5 videos to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel in January on the topics of dance, creativity, and joyful living:

December BuJo Review – 2024 Month 12 Creative Journal Flip video on YouTube
2024 Annual Book Flip video on YouTube
31 Days of Mindful Movement to Change Your Life video on YouTube
2025 Annual Book Setup – Golden Art Deco Journal video on YouTube
How to Tie Your Ballet Slipper & Pointe Shoe Ribbons video on YouTube

Connecting: Email & Social Media

The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing about as well as work from others that I believe to be of value for fellow creatives is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. It lights me up to see new subscribers there as well as responses to me missives.

I sent 5 Email Newsletters in January:

In addition, I posted 3 times to Instagram, may have been a little burnt out on that after sharing every single day the previous month thanks to #dancedailydecember, but having grace with a slow start to the year. It is my honor to be connected to you there, here, online and in-person!

A snowy rooftop in Cologne

Creative Challenges

After wrapping up Dance Daily December by biggest “challenge” was a comprehensive reflection on the last year as well as planning the upcoming season and year of artistic projects and campaigns.

This in addition to writing in my journals, playing with my new fountain pens, publishing articles, creating syllabi, improvisations and choreography, video filming and editing.

Twenty 25s in 2025

Having found such a structure useful in 2023 and 2024, for 2025 I am reducing the number of categories tracked to 20, and raise the actions by one for a catchy “Twenty 25s in 2025.”

In January, I chose my 20 actions and started tracking them, then in February I was able to post about it to the blog.

This creative challenge is a playful way to track various leading metrics, projects and activities I wish to keep an eye on, and since some of the actions are daily, I reached 25 actions in the month of January (Daily Logs, Yoga Practice Sessions, Meditation, Deutsch, Gratitude & Abundance).

Live art at a gallery in January, hosted by a favorite local artist and friend

Media Musings

My January in reading, listening, and viewing pleasures:

Art & Culture

Kicked our year right off with a murder mystery dinner with friends, art gallery openings and live performances!

Books & Reading

Books Read

Still reading along on my nonfiction picks (poetry, scripture, personal growth), and I completed one novel in January:

  • Funny Story by Emily Henry was a highly-recommended book from last year that I read at a good clip: “A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common… Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it… right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.”
Poetry Read

Listening Highlights

Favorite things heard over the course of the month go here, such as concerts, songs, pieces of music, playlists, podcasts and more.

Music: Songs, Playlists & Albums

My Balletlicious Barre+ Dance Playlist on YouTube inspired movement classes and students particularly liked this “Game of Thrones” Plie music for ballet class.

Viewing Highlights

Films

Favorite Movies watched in January:

Series

Series streamed in January:

  • Finished the “Schitt’s Creek” Series, which is sad since the characters are so endearing
  • “Missing You” Mystery Series my Mom recommended was action-packed
Glows & Media spread in my January Bullet Journal

Questions for Reflection

  • What do you want to remember from January/the past month, quarter, and year?
  • Which books, musical selections, and viewing do you currently recommend?
  • Where will you plant seeds to grow this season?
  • What are your favorite New Year’s and Spring treats?

Resources for Further Exploration

My other monthly reflections for 2025, special workshops and collaborations in dance, coaching and more coming soon.

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!

Take care of yourself and keep moving mindfully, let me know how if I can be of service, would love to see you in my email newsletter or on social media as well.

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education

Accelerate Action – Celebrate International Women’s Day with A Blythe Coach

Happy Women’s History Month in March and International Women’s Day Saturday, March 8th, 2025!

In celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, I’m sharing complimentary mini dance workshops in-person and online as well as resources from the hosts of this important event.

What is IWD?

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.

Accelerate Action

This year’s theme is Accelerate Action for Gender Equality.

At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.

Impactful organizations and groups across the world deliver an array of effective strategies, resources, and activity that help #AccelerateAction in many areas including:

  • forging women’s economic empowerment
  • recruiting, retaining and developing diverse talent
  • supporting women and girls into leadership, decision-making, business and STEM
  • designing and building infrastructure meeting the needs of women and girls
  • helping women and girls make informed decisions about their health
  • involving women and girls in sustainable agriculture and food security
  • providing women and girls with access to quality education and training
  • elevating women and girl’s participation and achievement in sport
  • promoting creative and artistic talent of women and girls
  • addressing further areas supporting the advancement of women and girls

There are many ways to get involved, including attending events, making an organizational statement, and striking the #AccelerateAction pose to show solidarity.

PHOTO!

IWD 2025 Statement

Collaborators were invited to film a Statement in support, which I shared on YouTube and Instagram:

“Happy Women’s History Month in March and International Women’s Day on Saturday the 8th! This year’s theme is Accelerate Action for Gender Equality.

At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.

I support Women of every stripe and type and intersectional equity, diversity, inclusion, and human rights during IWD and all year long!

Together, let’s Accelerate Action to speed up the rate of progress worldwide.”

International Women’s Day 2025 #AccelerateAction Statement video on YouTube

Mini Ballet Barre Video for IWD

This fifteen-minute Ballet Barre video on YouTube is offered in honor of International Women’s Day 2025, but is a great way to dance every day of the year!

In this video I demonstrate a typical start to my contemporary ballet classes, or a brief conditioning barre sequence for days with limited time to dance.

These combinations at the barre are provided without instruction as a dance-along for students who have practiced with me previously in-studio or online or otherwise have ballet experience. In the cards I have linked videos with instruction for each movement.

Ballet Barre Mini – 15 Minute No-Instruction/Dance-Along Session for IWD 2025 & every day! Video on YouTube
one2one Institut IWD Einladung zu Tag der offenen Tuer / invitation to open house

one2one Institut Open House

You are invited to join me in Cologne Rondorf on Saturday for an open house full of free workshops for women and their companions. Here is the text of the invitation in Germany:

“Liebe Gäste,

am 08.03.2025 öffnen wir von 12:00 bis 18:00 Uhr unsere Türen und laden Sie herzlich ein, praktische Einblicke in unsere ganzheitlichen Angebote zu erhalten.

Schnupperangebote:

• 13.00 Uhr – Barre à Terre (20 Min) / Blythe Stephens

• 14.00 Uhr – Martial Arts (30 Min) / Rolf Koll

• 15.00 Uhr – Qigong/Taiji (25 Min) / Dirk Nocon

• 16.00 Uhr – Barre à Terre (20 Min) / Blythe Stephens

• 16.30 Uhr – Martial Arts (30 Min) / Rolf Koll

• 17.15 Uhr – Qigong/Taiji (25 Min) / Dirk Nocon

Weitere Highlights:

• IHHT-Therapie – Zelltraining zur Leistungssteigerung und Regeneration / Pinio Bourlos-May

• Pilates – Kräftigung und Mobilisation für Körper und Geist / Pinio Bourlos-May

• Ratus Ritual – traditionelles indonesisches Kräuterritual für Entspannung und Pflege / Pinio Bourlos-May

• Endospheres – Hautstraffung und Tiefenmassage / Christine Mandelbaum

• Wimpernstyling – professionelle Verlängerung und Pflege / Frederica Lange

• Massagen – Entspannung für Körper und Geist / Tatjana Markus

• Kosmetische Behandlungen – individuelle Hautpflege / Olga Grabar

• Ästhetische Medizin – persönliche Beratung durch Dr. Nataliia Brykalina

• Aromatherapie mit Young Living Ölen / Anna Bytsenko

Vorteilsangebot:

Bei Buchung eines Termins oder eines Pakets an diesem Tag erhalten Sie einen exklusiven Rabatt!

Kommen Sie vorbei, entdecken Sie Neues und lassen Sie sich von unseren Experten beraten!

Ihre Pinio Bourlos-May

und das one2one Team”

Details of one2one Institut IWD/Weltfrauentag open house workshops and more

Action All Year Long

The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter.

I look forward to dancing with you, grand plie as pictured here not required!

Resources for Further Exploration

Questions for Reflection

  • How do you enjoy ballet, dance, or other mindful movement techniques in your daily practices?
  • Where is the growing edge of your artistic learning currently?
  • How are you celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month?
  • In what ways can you #accelerateaction for gender equity?

Thank you for moving with me, in spirit or in fact! Take good care.

Blythe Stephens, MFA, Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach: dance through your difficulties
and take leaps of faith into a joyful, fulfilling life

Twenty 25s in 2025: Analog Project Planning & Action Tracking, Creative Bullet Journal Style

Having enjoyed the benefits of tracking “Twenty-three 23’s in 2023” and “Twenty-four 24’s in 2024” actions in my Bullet Journal collections, I’m back for more in 2025!

This setup and structure are inspired by Jess, aka JashiiCorrin on YouTube, which I wrote about my in my 2023 Review blog, and it’s become a playful way to gamify my annual objectives! Making my leading metrics for the year concrete and fun helps me take action and track data in order to “move the needle” on my lagging metrics and results that follow.

Arranged according to my 8 major focus areas–Read, Write, Create, Serve, Connect, Practice, Sustain, and Adventure–this way I get a somewhat holistic picture of my intentions and goals for the year. I focus setting intentions, taking specific actions I can take to uphold them, then see what results occur. Then I reflect, recommit or change direction, and carry on creating!

Here’s the spread in my Bullet Journal, with a collection for each item to follow:

Twenty 25s in 2025 BuJo Spread in my Annual Collections Book

20 Actions, 25+ Times

This year I realized that I don’t want to keep increasing the number of measured actions annually, which would generate “Twenty-five 25s” and escalate each coming year, instead choosing to remove a few from the “25s” and focus more. Some actions in my eight focus areas I will continue to loosely track, but I discovered evaluating them numerically takes the fun out a bit. For example dates, artist dates, and other such adventures are important to me, but sheer quantity is less important than quality.

So, for each of 20 selected metrics in 2025 I mean to make at least 25 contributions, consistently supporting my major goals and most valued priorities.

Some of the activities truly do fall about every two weeks, sufficient for 25 within a year’s time, whereas others are meant to occur weekly or even daily (such as yoga practice, meditation, and reading). Therefore I will arrive at my goal at a different rate for each type of action. In fact at the time of this writing, I have already attained at least 25 actions in several areas! Each is something that I value and want to nurture, but the precise frequency that supports me best depends on the action.

I’ll be sure to share updates in future monthly review blog articles.

Some metrics I may not share in detail for personal or privacy reasons, and of course what measures are important to you will be different from my priorities, but I hope this sparks ideas for your own practice.

Twenty 25s Flip-Through

The video below on YouTube is a flip-through of the initial setup of my 2025 Annual Collections Book so far, including my Twenty 25s in 2025 projects and creative challenges planned as well as my “Kan Ban Board” of moving parts and Future Log.

Just sharing my own process and preferences, what works for you might very well look very differently! Brands and items I mention in the video are just what I have access to and currently use, based on personal experience and opinion. This video is not sponsored (none are so far) and I encourage you to use whatever supplies you have at hand and enjoy.

2025 Annual Book Setup – Golden Art Deco Creative Project Tracking, Twenty 25s video

If you enjoy this sort of content, check out my 2024 Annual Book, 2023 Annual Book and reflections, Word of the Year, and I’ll be back soon with more fun with ballet, mindful movement, creativity, and beyond.

My Twenty 25s

These are the twenty actions I chose, grouped into eight thematic areas (with a lot of overlap) and with a couple bonus spreads.

Read

1. Books

Fiction Novels such as cozy mysteries and rom-coms, Nonfiction, Personal Growth, Scriptures, Poetry, anything goes! Enjoying reading every day, learning from new perspectives, and diving into favorite topics are my main reading goals, so consistency and value is more important than volume.

Subscribers to my weekly email newsletter are privy to what I’m currently reading, top recommendations, and thoughts about current reads. Goodreads also tracks at least my eBook titles, most of which I borrow from the library using the Libby App.

Books Read & TBR

Write

2. Publish Blog Articles

Like this one! I write about dance, mindful movement, creativity, lifelong learning, coaching, and joyful living. I started blogging in order to share my knowledge, provide references for students and clients, and find my voice.

I continue because it has done all of that and also connects me to a community of likeminded people!

Blog Articles Published and To-Be-Written

3. Email Newsletters

The best way to keep in touch across the globe! I love sharing my latest creations and offerings and valuable resources from other creators as well in my approximately-weekly email newsletter. It’s important to me these days that I own my email list and website, so am less affected when social media goes down or otherwise behaves badly, and this also assures that you never miss out an anything I create or recommend.

Not yet a subscriber to my Email Newsletter? You can join here and let me know if you ever have questions.

Email Newsletters sent and Poem “Acorns” written

4. Poems

My ongoing log (both analog and digital) of “acorns” or nuggets of poems and songs for possible eventual completion helps keep me in practice and creates a bank of material for future use. Short poems may also come through all at once, like the 365 Haiku I wrote in 2021.

5. Letters

Telling loved ones how I feel, pen palling, keeping in touch through “snail mail.” Historically I have good intentions for regular correspondence, sending timely birthday cards, etc., but establishing the habit of writing and sending the post is still a growing edge. Pleased to continue improving my consistency in this area and it is very rewarding, I’ve been receiving some responses and the personally-addressed envelopes in my mailbox make my whole day!

Did I mention this is also a great opportunity to play with my new hobby of fountain pens and inks as well as my well-established love of stationery?

Letters sent and To-Be-Written

6. Daily Logs

Although this collection does not need its own spread in my Annual Book, I

Having my pocket notebook on hand at all times allows me to keep ongoing notes throughout the day, based on the sort of rapid logging Ryder Carroll describes in the Bullet Journal Method.

7. Morning Pages

Starting when I did Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, now I write my freewheeling freehand Pages most weekdays as part of my creative morning ritual.

Create

8. Videos

Ideally I’d like to publish videos at least weekly, but 25 is a good minimum to start with and supports me in consistently publishing content on YouTube and for social media to engage my students and audience. You can view and subscribe to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel here.

Videos posted and To-Be-Created

9. Choreography

Engaging in movement and artistic research is an ongoing feature of my practice. Like writing acorns or small segments of poems, the daily practice can be small, involving improvising, moving, and brainstorming. Then in addition to choreography for my classes and larger projects I am currently challenging myself to create weekly micro video choreography sketches for the #alphabetsuperset creative challenge. All of these could become of my working drafts – ideas and sequences that may find their way into (or ate least influence and inspire) a video, a class, workshop, collaboration, or other creation.

Create Dance Choreography “Acorns,” Choreographies To-Be-Created

10. Music

Creating music playlists and practicing playing an instrument or singing are also efforts that contribute to my artistic output and inspiration in other areas.

Then I share the musical selections and playlists in dance classes and use them for choreographic impulse, yoga practice, setting the mood for various other activities, and for celebration of life. As with books and reading, I sometimes share my favorite songs, pieces of music, and playlists including those I create myself in my videos, articles, and email newsletter.

I do enjoy including singing, harmonica, percussion, and other musical creative practices that complement my choreography, dance, and movement education. This is one way that I continually develop rhythm and musicality as I wrote about here and expand my potential artistic expression.

Creating Music and being in Service through Teaching classes

11. Bullet Journal (BuJo) Spreads

Got a good start on this in December and January as I set up my Annual Book spreads including my Future Log, these Twenty-Four 24’s. Along with the Monthly and Weekly spreads I create in my Seasonal Books and other special collections, I will certainly meet this goal. Like journaling content? Some of my spreads can be found on Instagram, in videos (in relation to creativity), and in blog articles like this one that relate my personal process.

Serve

12. Teach Classes

Ongoing Mindful Movement classes in Ballet, Barre+, Barre a Terre, and Yoga as well as special workshops and master classes are all a part of my professional service as a teaching artist and educator.

13. Coaching Sessions

Coaching clients, offering sample sessions, and supporting people in taking leaps of faith to create the life of their dreams is also part of the professional service that I provide.

Being of service in Coaching Sessions and Connecting through Creative Challenges

Bonus: Creative Challenges

Participating creative challenges hosted by others, such as Alphabet Superset, NaNoWriMo, Inktober, and more provide motivation, community, and structure in which my artist child can play. Hosting my own creative challenges in the areas of dance, yoga, and coaching, is a fun way to connect and support folks on those journeys.

Connect

14. Social Media

Posting, engaging, sharing resources, behind-the-scenes experiences, connecting with my creative community on Instagram and Facebook several times a week as @ablythecoach

Connecting through Social Media and Sustaining with Adulting & Financial Fun

Sustain

15. Financial Fun & Adulting

Weekly check-ins with accounts, bills, budgeting, balancing books, profit, debt, insurance, investment and adulting also need to be regularly updated. Staying real and being on top of this area eases anxiety and helps me focus on what is important.

Sustainment includes Adulting, Financial Fun, an Empties List, Wish List…

Practice

16. German/Deutsch

Also related to the adulting topic of maintaining my work visa and other living-abroad to-dos.

Duolingo helps me continue to build my vocabulary and correct my grammar alongside practicing in teaching and everyday conversation. Being a daily activity, usually two short sessions mornings and evenings, I completed over 25 sessions by the end of January.

Practicing German, living in Germany, practicing Yoga, Meditation, Gratitude, etc.

17. Yoga

Short or longer daily yoga practices have been one of my most consistent daily habits since 2019, so this year I completed my 24th practice of 2024 on January 24th. Here is an article where I wrote about Healthy Habit Building, and I also share about yoga on my YouTube Channel and in-person and online teaching.

18. Meditate

As with Yoga, Meditation is a part of my daily ritual of healthy habits and so I reached 24 sessions on the 24th of January. There are so many benefits and I’ll absolutely continue to practice.

19. Gratitude & Abundance

In my pocket notebook, digitally in the Gratitude App, as often as I can being present to the abundance and beauty I enjoy.

20. Physical Therapy

With a Thera Band, Balance Board, Foam Roller, Ball, Pull-Up Bar and more, I do a lot of cross-training in order to be able to continue actively dancing and teaching mindful movement.

Adventure, Travel, To-See

Bonus: Adventure & Celebration

Adventure for me means everything from trying new experiences, taking romantic or artist’s dates, providing nourishment for my soul and creative process.

Travel, Events, Dates & New Experiences are one of my favorite areas in which to set goals and broaden my horizons, connect with loved ones and meet new connections. Trips home to visit my family and on other getaways are in the works for 2024.

Playfully fueling my creative fire, using my art & craft supplies, journaling, coffeeshops, bookstores, museums and galleries, performance and adventures, park time sketching, bird-watching…pretty much anything that inspires me can qualify as an Artist’s Date! Like that of Morning Pages, this concept comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

Further Tracking

The Annual Book is also where I record things like a Future Log of coming events, Kan Ban Board of actions to produce content, and other projects that I design and challenges I participate in during the year.

Kan Ban Board

Kan Ban: each piece of content involves a number of steps of creation & sharing

Future Log

The Future Log is an important spread in my Annual Book

What are Your 25s?

If you’ve chosen intentions and objectives or projects for the year, I’d love to hear about them and how it is going! You can start now, or at any time, just by choosing one action you’d like to complete 25 times in the coming period. Build a new habit and see the impact taking one small step (repeatedly) can have!

Questions for Reflection

  • What goals and intentions do you have for 2025, the coming quarter and month?
  • What small actions or habits could you practice regularly in alignment with your intended outcomes?

Resources for Further Exploration

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate people dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education

Building a Healthy Relationship with Body & Food – Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025

Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) is an annual campaign to educate the public about the realities of eating disorders and to provide hope and visibility to individuals and loved ones impacted by eating disorders.

With Black History Month in February, Women’s History Month in March, International Women’s Day March 8th it is important to note that women and marginalized communities are particularly adversely affected.

The US Office of Women’s Health even offers a free EDAW toolkit here!

The EDAW campaign resources are all available here, from graphics to screenings

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Taking place Monday, February 24 – Sunday, March 2, 2025, I have once again signed up to be an Eating Disorders Awareness Week Collaborator, which means A Blythe Coach is listed on the collaborators page and I have agreed to share important resources with students, clients, and my community!

This issue is close to my heart as a dancer, educator, and person who has grown up in a toxic diet and body culture, working hard to break free of such restriction and all harmful constructs.

My perspective on the topic of Eating Disorders prevention is that of a lifelong performing artist from the intensely competitive subculture of classical ballet, in a society already obsessed with impossible-to-attain ideals of beauty. Layered with that, philosophy, critical theory, and the lens of intersectional feminism.

At thirteen I left home for a summer dance intensive at the Nashville Ballet and it was there that I first became aware of the risk and symptoms of disordered eating and body perception. As an adult, I have made progress in educating myself, accepting my own body and others’, and promoting self-acceptance.

Personally, I continue to heal my own relationship with my body, food, and eating, to learn about anti-diet nutrition, Health At Every Size, and developing a neutral relationship to body/food through inspirational leaders in these spaces.

Seeking to educate myself and to lift up others, here are the resources I have found so far, the people to whom I turn and trust in providing referrals for my own students and clients. This is a growing collection and I would love to add your contributions as well!

The Time is Now

This year’s theme is: The Time is Now. Our goal is to create urgency around the need to recognize eating disorders as a public health concern and to push the importance of early detection through screenings, funding research, and accessible treatment and resources.

Like all mental illnesses, detection and effective treatment are potentially life-saving.

Enjoying a milkshake, ongoing work for a healthy relationship to body, food & eating

Finding Help, Resources, Links

Eating Disorders Awareness Week is relevant to the my own life experiences along with those of many I know as the consequences of untreated Eating Disorders can be dire. In fact, Eating Disorders present the greatest risk of mortality of all mental illnesses.

In my ballet and Mindful Movement classes and coaching, in-person and online, I seek to offer an open and accepting perspective and well as referrals and resources as needed.

I shared a bit of my personal story in 2024 in my ​EDAW Greeting Video​ and Wrap-Up Video on Instagram and I hope you find my story and the information and other folks referenced to be helpful in your own journey!

Podcast Episodes & Articles with Dieticians

Crucial to my path of learning about eating disorder awareness and treatment have been conversations with anti-diet, pro-body-neutrality and diversity in dance dieticians who I am proud to know personally. The resulting podcast interviews and blogs are accessible here:

​Dancing Body Acceptance with Dietician Fumi Somehara​

​Dancing Body Acceptance with Dietician Fumi Somehara​, an article and A Blythe Coach podcast episode 074, Part 1 of my mini-series on Dancing Body Acceptance from 2021 and still relevant today! Of particular value are her recommendations for teachers, students/dancers, concerned family members and friends, and dance companies.

Dance Recovering from Eating Disorder with Dietician Mona ‘Kai’ Iguchi

​Dance Recovering from Eating Disorder with Dietician Mona ‘Kai’ Iguchi​, an article and A Blythe Coach podcast episode 075, Part 2 of my mini-series on Dancing Body Acceptance. Kai is a Dietician working in eating disorder recovery, an adult ballet dancer, and nonbinary (they/them pronouns) who has connected me with a wealth of wonderful resources when it comes to dancing nutrition, eating disorder treatment, equity and access. They were also a ballet student of mine at the University of Hawai’i!

Podcasts by Others

Books

People & Organizations

​Body-Positive and Anti-Diet Creators who inspire me​, including yoga teachers, coaches, dancers, therapists, nutritionists and other creators who foster diversity and inclusion:

“You’re not the problem, it’s the culture of dance that you have grown up in, it’s also society and the world we live in, your body is not the one to blame.”     – Fumi Somehara

Organizations
  • Project HEAL, a nonprofit organization, Est. 2008: “Eating disorder recovery is hard – getting treatment shouldn’t be. We help break down systemic, healthcare & financial barriers to healing.”
  • National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders/ANAD is a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization providing free, peer support services to anyone struggling with an eating disorder.
    • History: “Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) was established to bring attention to the prevalence of eating disorders, reduce stigma, and provide education on prevention and treatment. Its origins trace back to the 1980s, when mental health advocates began organizing events to shed light on eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Over time, these efforts grew into a coordinated annual campaign observed in many countries. The week encourages dialogue, empowers individuals struggling with these conditions, and highlights the importance of early intervention and proper care.”
  • Beat Eating Disorders is UK-based and also has helpful links:
    • Right now, at least 1.25 million people in the UK are living with an eating disorder. That’s more than 1 in 50 people – but the real number could be even higher. Eating disorders like ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and OSFED are complex mental health conditions which are often misunderstood, mislabelled or undiagnosed which can prevent people from reaching out for help.
    • Eating disorders don’t just affect the person with the condition, friends and family often become carers – feeling helpless and heartbroken, as they watch their loved one struggle. Eating disorders are one of the biggest mental health challenges of our time and they can affect anyone at any time. Go to Eating disorders can affect anyone to find out more.
  • DDD Center for Recovery is Dietician Fumi Somehara​‘s Australia clinic, “an inclusive and compassionate, non-diet nutrition practice. We help you heal from chronic dieting, weight cycling, disordered eating, eating disorders, and RED-S. We are grounded in Health At Every Size(R) philosophy and truly believe that all bodies, no matter its size, shape, colour or gender, deserves respectful and compassionate care. We will listen to your story and provide a space where you can heal your relationship with food and your body, so that you can live a liberated and nourishing life.”
Dieticians / Nutritionists

Dance-friendly, body-neutral, anti-diet professionals:

Dancers & Teachers
Who Is This Chick?
Dance Companies

Nonbinary-friendly, racially and physically and diverse ballet companies:

Therapists
Body-Neutral, -Positive, & Anti-Diet & ED Creators

German Resources / Deutch

Despite attempts to find informative and entertaining resources in German, I’m still early in my research and would appreciate any leads you might have.

Questions for Reflection

  • How is your relationship with my body, food, eating?
  • Should you or someone you know take an assessment?
  • What organizations do you know of who do good work in the area of Eating Disorder education, prevention, and treatment?
  • What resources does my community need and how can I connect them?
  • How can I support you in going after your dreams?
Notes from EDAW 2024 in my Bullet Journal: Anti-Diet, HAES, Diversity & Inclusion!

My Commitment

Myself, I re-commit to body-positivity and adaptivity in my classes and programs and continuing to grow in my relationship to food, eating, diversity, and inclusion. #edaw #edawareness

Look forward to sharing how in March I am taking part in International Women’s Day and invite you to special events for Dance Week, Coaching Week and more coming up soon! Enjoy your Karneval and Easter candy and see you again soon.

The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing about as well as my favorite work from other creators is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. Would love to be connected to you there, here, on social media, online or in-person!

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
she/her or they/them
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education

DISCLAIMER: A Blythe Coach recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recommendations and follow all safety instructions before beginning any exercise program. When participating in any exercise or exercise program, there is the possibility of physical injury. If you engage in this exercise or exercise program, you agree that you do so at your own risk, are voluntarily participating in these activities, assume all risk of injury to yourself.

Float in 2025 – Word / Intention of the Year

Twenty Twenty-Five

so good to be alive,

finding me floating,

spreading wings to fly.

Jumping, flapping, climbing,

then soar, a bird in the sky,

rising with the thermals,

lifting others to sunshine.

– Blythe Stephens, 2025

Blythe’s word / stand / intention Bullet Journal Spread for 2025: Float!

Blythe’s Word of the Year annual bullet journal cover page: Float!

With black and gold Art Deco-style background and art postcard from our visit to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam last summer by Edouard Halouze, Tafel aus Jean Saude “Traite d’enluminure d’art au pochoir,” 1925, Pochoir.

Float, Fly, Soar

2024 was a leap year and both the dynamic term “leap year” and idea of a whole additional juicy day in the year during which to experience and accomplish things inspired me to choose LEAP as last year’s stand or intention.

This year I wish to ride the momentum forward that the bravery of leaping and strength and resilience in climbing has built. There’s still work to do, but we are now at a height to soar, with the perspective to see more than ever before.

As a dancer, it’s an apt analogy, though there is effort behind the movements, we can appear to hover, glide, and yes float, seemingly defying (and in truth, working with) gravity.

Choosing a guiding word or phrase each year has been a part of my intention-setting process since 2015, thanks to my friend Liz, and I also shared about my 2023 Word, 2024 Word and intentions on Instagram, YouTube, and here on the blog.

This year I’m continuing to take inspiration from flying creatures I love such as birds and butterflies, from air and skies and celestial imagery, stars and the sun, moon and planets, clouds, rainbows, storms, wind and weather patterns.

My Word of the Year of Float will fuel my projects, goals, short- and long-term vision. Where can I take the momentum I created last year? In what areas might I be able to exert less force and continue to sail?

How will I uplift others?

FLOAT! 2025 Word of the Year & Powerful Annual Stands video on YouTube

Alignment with Purpose, Vision, Mission, Values

Metaphorically floating myself while also lifting others is directly connected to my Purpose of Joy, Essence of Buoyant (!), Creative, Curious, Love, & Leader, my Mission to inspire, equip, and liberate, Vision to support my community to live extraordinary lives through coaching, dance and mindful movement education, and even my Artist’s Prayer includes the line “loving my neighbors, helping them to fly as birds!”

None of us is free until we are all free, and my work includes an intersectional commitment to emancipation for all.

Empowering and uplifting myself and others starts within and then moves out into the world.

My role as a Bliss Catalyst is to assist others in navigating their own brave moves, whether they be artistic, athletic, professional, or personal.

Staying Present to Our Intentions

Staying grounded in this intention informs my attitude and choices throughout the year and helps me get oriented again when I get lost in the circumstances of everyday life, from mundane details to sudden crises or worldwide drama.

Writing out my word and poem in my Bullet Journal and grounding it in beautiful imagery, then placing it where I will interact with it daily and be reminded or where I’m coming from in 2025 will provide support for my commitment.

Édouard Halouze, Tafel aus Jean Saudé,
Traite d’enluminure d’art au pochoir,” 1925, Pochoir
C MKG, Hamburg / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Art

For my opening spread of my 2025 Annual Book, as a representation of my Word of the Year along with the poem I wrote, I chose to use a postcard I purchased at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam last summer.

“The Messenger,” a 1920 painting on silk by Édouard Halouze and credited as a print from Jean Saudé’s “Traité d’enluminure d’art au pochoir” in 1925, provides a wonderful reference image.

All year, the word and image will provide a reminder of what I am up to, and I’ll continue to collect and share resources along the way.

Poetry & Media

My 2025 “Float” Poem above and others provide direction and motivation. Such as my Haiku #125 (inspired by an email from Auntie Carol) from 2021:

Gentle angel floats

down beside me gracefully

one foot at a time

Every day I’m finding new favorites in the poetry anthology I picked up to take me through 2025, 365 Poems for Life: An Uplifting Collection for Every Day of the Year compiled by Allie Esiri, and I’ll also continue reading other inspiring works of poetry such as Rilke’s Gesammelte Werke and Letters to a Young Poet as well as prose and nonfiction finds.

Music

Fly on the Wind – Airy Mood Music is a YouTube playlist of light air element tracks

Janelle Monae’s “​Float” Dance Edit​, the track I used for “F” of my Alphabet Superset, is truly a perfect fit for my Word of the Year, a banger of a song and music video!

Janelle Monae’s “​Float” Dance Edit​ video on YouTube

Balletlicious Barre+ Dance is another playlist I’m currently moving to, and I regularly share playlists, songs, videos, readings, and other juicy resources from myself and other creators in my free weekly email newsletter.

May you float through 2025 and embody whatever words of power and purpose you so choose!

Questions for Reflection

  • What is your Word(s) of the Year?
  • Which small action(s) will you take today to embody it?
  • What images, quotes, songs, and other resources will inspire you?
  • How will you return to your intention when life inevitably carries you away?

Resources for Further Exploration

My Twenty 25s in 2025 collections, Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) and International Women’s Day collaborations, explorations in dance, coaching and more coming soon.

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!

Take care of yourself, keep moving mindfully, and let me know how if I can be of service. Would love to connect with you in my email newsletter or on social media as well.

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties &
take leaps of faith through coaching, dance & yoga education

Leaps & Bounds in 2024 – Reflecting on a Year’s Highs & Lows

2024

quantum leaps in store

into creativity

joy + love galore!

That’s the poem I shared when I declared my Word of the Year and practices to make it so. Now how did it go?

Negativity bias is real, and I well remember the challenges and struggles I faced last year. Thankfully, I take fuller and more objective stock of my declarations and results for the year as well as the events, highlights and accomplishments I have recorded along the way.

In the end, I saw growth all over and for that I am very grateful!

View of a bridge across the Rhine River from a train in Cologne, Germany

Leap Year

It was indeed a Leap Year, and that extra day in February, plus a powerful intention-setting and planning process and aligned daily habits created quantum leaps in many areas of my and my clients and students’ lives.

2024 Annual Book Flip – Creative BuJo Collections shows my projects “after the pen”

Annual & Monthly Reflections

Participating in Judith Peters’ (aka Sympatexter on YouTube) Jahresruekblog or Yearly/Annual Review Blogging Challenge (in German) at the end of 2023 into January of 2024 greatly inspired me to get consistent with my Monthly Review blogs as well, which has helped with Quarterly and 6-Month check-ins and now my annual retrospective.

It can be overwhelming to distill down to what’s most important among all of the highlights, lowlights, memories, milestones, challenges, and lessons from a whole year’s experiences. In the process I looked back at daily logs, my BuJo, photos, music, books, viewing, creative challenges, teaching, coaching, finances, adulting, travel, hobbies, personal and family life, choreography, world events and politics, published articles, videos, emails… and am moved by all that took place!

As I’ve noted in previous years, it takes me a while to complete such a reflection process, but I appreciate being able to take the time to look back, be present to my response to my actions and results, and inform my approach going forward.

Here I’m reviewing my goals and intentions, highlights and lowlights, joys and lessons of 2024 in order to move powerfully into 2025.

The beautiful wedding celebration of my partner Ela’s sister was a 2024 highlight!

Key 2024 Themes for Me

Theme 1: Family & Friends

We were so fortunate to spend special times with friends and family this year, mine and Ela’s. Incredibly grateful to be able to travel to be with my parents, aunties, and cousins, and that a couple of my cousins could come to Europe again, meeting us in Amsterdam for a summer getaway.

One of my best friends who was a reason why I visited and then moved to Germany visited with her daughter and my Mom’s cousin also swung by on a Rhine River tour. Ela had her first visit to California (San Diego) along with our Hawai’i trip, we attended her sister’s wedding here in Cologne over the summer, got away for a weekend with friends to see the fall colors, and we also made it a priority to watch our little nephew grow and play.

Theme 2: Creative Chosen Challenges

Hosting and participating in challenges and workshops was a highlight again in 2024, such as Self-Care September, completing my Alphabet Superset Challenge, and more below under “Creative Challenges” and “Twenty-Four 24s in 2024.”

Completed my Alphabet Superset challenge in 2024, having done the first half in 2023

Theme 3: Adventures, Arts & Culture

I was blessed with a wealth of special concerts, performances, galleries and museums, travel adventures, new sports and more! Many are below under “Glows,” “Marvelous Media.”

2024 Intentions & Outcomes

  • Life: Make Quantum Leaps (spiritually, creatively), help others do likewise, Connect, Share Love, Adventure, Travel, Celebrate, continue Rituals and Habits. Yes I DID take Quantum Leaps and helped students and clients to do the same! I was blessed with rich cultural experiences, travel, and adventure.
  • Growth: my YouTube Channel didn’t quite reach my 1,000 subscriber goal, but did end 2024 with 856 subscribers, up from 495 in 2023! I have seen growth in enrollment as well, increased the number and type of my offerings and continued to write, create, and share, proud of my efforts overall.
  • Revenue: I personally do not share financial details here in these articles, but like my other stated goals, I saw distinct growth. New opportunities continue to present themselves and I am so grateful to be able to do work I’m passionate about!

Annual Glows + Grows

As with my reflections on other periods of time, in Daily Logs, Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly Reflections, I take note of what went well, what was challenging, surprises and unexpected circumstances, highlights and lowlights.

I vent it all, then see what trends and themes I can suss out.

Meeting up with my cousins in Amsterdam was again a highlight of the year!

Glows: Highlights & Accomplishments

There were some standout moments related to my intentions, as well as delights and enriching experiences that arrived over the course of the year.

I’m especially pleased and proud of:

  • Maintaining daily Yoga, Meditation, Reading, Writing, Gratitude + Abundance, German practices, weekly Physical Therapy, Improvisation, Artist’s Dates, Monthly Reflections, and Creative Outputs
  • Still so in love and celebrated my 6th Anniversary with Ela and we started learning a new dance style together: TANGO!
  • Trip Home to Kailua-Kona, Emceed again for West Hawai’i Dance Theatre’s “Giselle” Ballet there, practiced Tai Chi by the sea, had quality time with my parents
  • Getaways to Amsterdam with my cousins in June and Mendig with friends in October
  • Classes and offerings growing, teaching and coaching new techniques, locations, and demographics
  • My ballet students successfully completed their Royal Academy of Dancing-based examinations with Tanzschule Tanzraum
  • Participated in challenges new and old: Camp NaNoWriMo/Memoir, Self-Care September, finished my Alphabet Superset creative challenge (more below)
  • Adulting: admitted to the Kunstler Sozialkasse (artist’s guild) and Techniker Krankenkasse (health insurance) in Germany, so enjoyed voting for Kamala Harris
  • Arts & Culture – treated to live performances including “Twelve Ton Rose” by Trisha Brown performed by Ballet de Lorraine, the classical ballet “Giselle” performed by West Hawai’i Dance Theatre, The Trocks, music concerts and art gallery opening (see below under “Marvelous Media”).
  • Sports – went to our first pro Hockey game in January, practiced Tai Chi by the sea in Kona, watched Sumo Championships, Women’s World Cup finals, Eddie Aikau surf competition, and some of the Paris Olympics, most notably the opening entertainments
  • Had a blast picking up a new creative hobby in Fountain Pens and Inks and reviving an old one, birdwatching: Best Birding Apps in 2024
Daily Duolingo Deutsch put me in the top 1% of language learners in 2024

Grows: Lowlights, Loss & Lessons

  • Wars, dictators and billionaires (and aspiring) – civil inequality shaking our world, causing refugee to flee and trauma. Save the children, call for a ceasefire, peace on earth.
  • Disastrous US Presidential Election – politics is not my major focus, but I know that a criminal in office, and another term of Cheetolini, will have far-reaching negative effects for Americans and worldwide.
  • Family health stress – multiple family members were treated for various conditions in 2024–Dad’s Aortic Aneurysm and various infections, Mom’s knee, Auntie’s cancer–and it was dreadful to wait for those surgeries and their outcomes. I am grateful that as of now, things went as well as could be hoped.
  • Tricky times with students of various ages and demographics and witnessed incidents in public around racism, politics, diversity and inclusion, acceptance and tolerance.
2023 Annual Collections Journal Flipthrough and 2024 Migration part 1 on YouTube

Creative Challenges

In 2024 I both hosted and participated in a variety of stimulating creative challenges, such as:

  • Twenty-Four 24s in 2024 – This was the organizing structure of BuJo Collections & Projects and I updated the trackers throughout the year, noting when I completed each “24.” See below for the details of each…
  • Jahresrückblog Annual Review Article & Monthly Reviews
    • Participating in Judith Peters’ (aka Sympatexter on YouTube) “Jahresruekblog” or Yearly/Annual Review Blogging Challenge (in German) at the end of 2023 into January of 2024 greatly inspired me to get consistent with my Monthly Review blogs as well, which has then helped with Quarterly and 6-Month check-ins, and now my annual retrospective. It can be overwhelming to distill down to what’s most important all of the highlights, lowlights, memories, milestones, challenges lessons from a whole year’s experiences in daily logs, my BuJo, photos, music, books, viewing, creative challenges, teaching coaching, finance, adulting, travel, hobbies, personal and family life, choreography, world events and politics, published articles, videos, emails…but looking at the main themes and projects monthly made it all feel more manageable.
  • Subsequently Publishing Monthly Review Blogs (12)
  • Alphabet Superset (continued from 2023, completed in 2024)
  • Yoga Visibility Challenge in January with Susanna Barkataki
  • Depth Year: Because of my intention to consume mindfully, create little waste, live simply, I created a Low Buy tracker for the year, to keep tabs on non-necessity personal items purchased or otherwise obtained. This wound up including glasses and clothing items for a Karneval costume, Stamps for making impressions in my journals and for my students, Cosmetic articles, fountain pens & ink, other stationery and supplies all of which has brought value and utility
  • Proud to have been an Eating Disorders Awareness Week Collaborator in February
  • International Women’s Day March 8th
  • National Dance Week April 19th-28th, 2024is an annual celebration of dance that takes place from April 19 to 28 this year. Do you know that dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from one generation to the next, before the invention of written languages? The week is specially set aside to spread the delight and joys of dancing, and to create awareness about its impact and benefits.
  • 29.4 International Dance Day https://www.international-dance-day.org/In 1982 the Dance Committee of ITI founded International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet. The intention of the International Dance Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language 
  • June: PRIDE
  • July: Non-binary People’s Day
  • Self-Care September
  • Dance Daily December – 31 Days of Mindful Movement to Change Your Life

Publishing Articles

Among the articles I published in 2024 were monthly reflections (see above regarding the Annual Reflection/Jahresrueckblick Challenge with Judith Peters), as well as blogs on the topics of dance and creative living. Monthly Reflections:

3 Favorite Articles

The creative challenges I took on also led to a few of my favorite blog articles that I published in 2024:

Alphabet Superset Recap
Alphabet Superset Creative Challenge Recap 2023-2024: Learning from Filming 26 Micro Video Choreos on TikTok A-Z
Completing my Alphabet Superset was one of my Creative Challenges of 2024, blog here
Dance Daily December Recap
Dance Daily December Recap – 31 Days of Movement to Change Your Life & 7 ways it did
Dance Daily December was the last Creative Challenge of 2024, blog here
Happy PRIDE Month! Celebrating Diversity, Identity & Justice
Happy PRIDE Month! Celebrating Diversity, Identity & Justice – Leaping Out of the Closet (again and again)
Happy PRIDE Month! Celebrating Diversity, Identity & Justice was another leap I took
My Twenty-Four 24s in 2024 Bullet Journal spread at the beginning of the year

Twenty-Four 24s in 2024

In service to my overarching long-term goals, I had announced twenty-four focus areas or more regular habits/practices. This was playfully inspired by JashiiCorrin on YouTube, and I first participated with a Bullet Journal spread to declare and track in 2023. For each of the twenty-four chosen actions for 2024, I meant to make at least 24 contributions, and in this way consistently support of my major goals and most valued priorities.

For additional accountability and to encourage others to join in their own way, I declared my Twenty-Four 24s in 2024 in this blog article.

I met or exceeded 18 of my 24 announced targets, not bad!

Here are the practices I did at least 24 times:
  1. Books Read – I actually enjoyed reading 26 books and I’m very happy with this. My goal for reading is not maximum consumption, but maximum appreciation of the benefits of reading books and a balance of pleasure and growth. Diversity in topics and genres as well as turning to reading material that is just for the fun of it. See below under “Marvelous Media” for my favorite reads of the year!
  2. Daily Logs Written – 366 entries
  3. Morning Pages – 189 entries
  4. Write Articles – 30 blog articles published here on ablythecoach.com, much better than the previous year! Not yet weekly, but improving formatting and overall quality as well as number of times I published
  5. Send Email Newsletters – 43, a top priority is to stay in touch with my inner circle of students, clients, and likeminded creatives in this way, not susceptible to the vicissitudes of Social Media.
  6. Poems – 24
  7. Letters – 24
  8. Videos Published – 44 new videos shared to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel, especially proud of my work here!
  9. Choreography – 46 sketches/segments, very much supported by participating in Alphabet Superset and creating Dance Daily December (above).
  10. Bullet Journal Spreads – at least 24, including annual collections, monthly and weekly spreads, and quarterly reflections, plus special events and trips
  11. Practice Yoga – as this is meant to be a daily ritual, I reached my 24th practice in January, and 292 practice sessions total, “good” in my good-better-best metric
  12. Meditate – another daily ritual, 312 sessions total
  13. Gratitude & Abundance – all 366 days
  14. Deutsch – all 366 days
  15. Physical Therapy – about twice weekly, 52+ sessions
  16. Classes Taught – 462 including online & in-studio!
  17. Social Media Posts – 154 Instagram posts
  18. Financial Fun – weekly, about 52 times balancing books & budgeting
2024 marked 5 years of posting to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel!

Sharing Videos

I posted 44 new videos to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel, reached 856 subscribers, and marked 5 years of publishing free content there!

Connection, Email & Social Media

I sent 43 approximately-weekly Email Newsletters in 2024, full of value-packed resources for fellow creatives. Some months I was particularly active on Instagram and Facebook, or even TikTok while posting my Alphabet Superset and Dance Daily December videos. Also posted about a few major events that I felt it was important to speak up about, including Nonbinary People’s Day/Week.

The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing about as well selected work from other creators is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter.

Would love to be connected to you there, on social media, online or in-person!

Seeing the Trocks (surprise gift!) in Cologne fulfilled a bucket list item

Marvelous Media

Many enjoyable books, series, films, dance and music concerts, art museums and galleries illuminated my year, here are some of my favorites:

Reading & Books

Nonfiction

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World Memoir/Nonfiction book by Christian Cooper I bought as a supportive resource for my 2024 theme and savored it along the way. Interesting life story, entertaining style and format, and powerful social and personal messages!

Poetry Collections
Poems
  • “Home” poem by Rumi
  • “Fly” poem by Rumi
  • “White Eyes” poem by Mary Oliver (included with Moon Medicine Yoga Slow Flow)
Novels & Series
  • The Guest: A Novel by Emma Cline was a wild, off-the-rails, and well-written way to kick off the year in reading! Warning: very adult and potentially triggering content – Alex does drugs and has sex the whole time. Great slow-build suspense, observations on people, personalities, a slice of society.
  • Good Material: A novel by Dolly Alderton, which is about the humor and madness and The Madness of going through a breakup, well-written and bittersweet but not so light. Told from the perspective of a troubled comedian for most of the story, then an interesting perspective shift as well.
  • The Maid: A Novel (Molly the Maid Book 1) by Nita Prose was an excellent book recommendation for me, an unusual murder mystery, and I look forward to what is to come from this author!
  • Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston was a cute alternate-reality political gay romance and fun to read together with my sweetie (we also read another book of theirs last year, One Last Stop), after which we viewed the 2023 film version with a critical eye, and then uncarley’s commentary, also humorous
  • Sandwich by Catherine Newman is one of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year, a story about three generations spending a summer week in a cabin on the cape and also about the beautiful, grotesque, transcendent, profane, hilarious tragedy of life, with a menopausal main character.
  • Christina Lauren’s The Soulmate Equation & The True Love Experiment sequel, and other Rom-Com novels such as In a Holidaze, went on to binge this new-to-me writing duo’s works in the order they became available as eBooks from my library through Libby.
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley: “To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections.” Having read a later book in the series first by accident, I was glad to go back to the beginning to read the rest of this fun precocious pre-teen whodunnit in order.
  • The Summer Place: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner
  • Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan was the 24th book I completed in 2024 and I loved it! Rom-Com, so funny but also so tender and crushing, wonderful characters, family and friend relationships in addition to the romance. Not wanting to wear hard pants, being dumped by friends in the 7th grade (for me it was 6th), aging, working through grief…so relatable.
  • Happy Place by Emily Henry was a moving Rom-Com.
  • Age of Vice: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) by Deepti Kapoor I found epic and absolutely riveting. Very triggering, gritty, difficult themes, so be warned, but I found it brilliantly written with compelling characters and twisted family dynamics.
  • We Were Liars E. Lockhart. The writing is lyrical, characters endearing, and the reveal intense! Not usually a suspense reader, but this one was riveting though horrific, mysterious, tragic, and well-suited to spooky season.
Email Newsletters & Blogs
  • Lindsey Mack: Tarot for the Wild Soul
  • Courtney Carver: Be More with Less
  • Tiago Forte: Atomic Habits, 3-2-1
  • Tarzan Kay
  • Susanna Barkataki (also YouTube & Instagram)

Music & Listening

Impactful sources of hearing pleasure and information:

Songs & Albums
Playlists
Podcasts
  • Tarot for the Wild Soul
  • The Good Life Project
  • Soul and Wit

Viewing

Live Performances
  • “Twelve Ton Rose” Dance Concert, Choreography by Trisha Brown, performed by Ballet de Lorraine at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn
  • “Giselle” Classical Ballet performed by West Hawai’i Dance Theatre at Kahilu Theatre on the Big Island of Hawai’i, where I enjoyed serving as Emcee
  • Multi-Artist Artverwandte Art & Photo Exhibit at Atelier Zoozmann, Ohne das Stauen band
  • Arthur’s art gallery showings, live art events
  • Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, special multimedia Marina Abramovic Exhibition
  • Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Dance Concert at the Koelner Philharmonie, a surprise birthday gift from my girlfriend’s mother, which she and Ela’s aunt attended with us. A world-famous all-male ballet parody troupe with legitimate dancing and comedy chops. They lived up to my high expectations, I wept with laughter and clapped my hands off with appreciation for their brilliance.
  • ​Paris Summer Olympics Opening Festivities​: this event had as much to do with music, dance, and history as with sport and I was dazzled. Had to fast-forward through the hours of the countries filing through on boats along the Seine, majestic though it was, and was annoyed by the commentary interrupting the performances (try to find a version to watch without it if you can), but the many musical and dance performance features were an absolute spectacle, showcasing artistic excellence of so many diverse and interacting kinds.
Films
  • “Nimona” film
  • “The Menu” film
  • “Bros” film
  • ““Will & Harper” is a documentary of a real friendship
  • “The Lobster” film was every bit as bizarre as I had heard, darkly humorous
  • “Dungeons and Dragons” film was actually very cute and entertaining
  • “Deadpool and Wolverine” was the perfect silly summer film to see at the cinema (with a large popcorn), especially the Backstreet Boys dance fight scene
  • “Wicked Little Letters” we watched at home, based on a true story and is a cute and wild tale of inappropriate correspondence and false accusations
  • “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” Film (we watched “Beetlejuice” for Halloween) new Comedy/Horror
  • “How it Ends” 2021 film is both apocalyptically dark and uplifting
  • Rashad Butler’s favorite movies of 2024 https://youtu.be/DTJGaqrJg7I?si=8s8rFtW9bSck_mBf
Series
  • The “Girls5eva” series and their songs (a tale of a girl band reunion) kicked off my year just right, a comedy with heart, “‘coz 4eva’s too short” 🙂
  • “Poker Face” Comedy-Drama Series might turn out to be my favorite fictional show of the year. Great acting, plot, music, direction…
  • “The White Lotus” series is a hit for a reason, slow build mystery comedy
  • “The Bear” series
  • “The Brothers Sun” series
  • “Only Murders in the Building” series
  • New “The Wonder Years”
  • “Young Rock,” a fictional future bio series about Dwayne Johnson as a presidential candidate telling stories from his youth, is light entertainment
  • “The Umbrella Academy” is certainly a dark and twisted, but action packed series
  • “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine​,” though far from a new release, is still so ahead of its time and turning into a surprisingly soothing way to unwind before bed
  • The “Monsters: the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” series on Netflix is disturbing but fascinatingly nuanced in perspective as well and a chilling true crime for those into that sort of thing, which we also followed up with the new The Menendez Brothers documentary
  • “The Boyfriend” series is a gay Japanese dating reality show, interesting to watch and such a completely different experience from
  • “Princess Charming” series, a lesbian German dating reality show. This one we honestly don’t watch in full, rather the reactions of Annika, who humorously summarizes the action and selects relevant clips.
  • “Queer Eye” Season 9 helped me have hope for humanity
YouTube Videos & Channels

My Goals for 2025

My big-picture, long-term goals and dreams haven’t changed this year, but I will be continuing to pursue them in patient, persistent, and strategic ways. I’ve chosen a Word of the Year as well as Twenty 25s for 2025 and will be sharing these intended actions and how I’m tracking and supporting them in the future.

Glad to be on this journey together!

Pansy blooming in my neighborhood in November 2024, let’s blossom in 2025!

Questions for Reflection

  • How do you reflect on the year past?
  • What goals and intentions do you have for 2025?
  • How can I support you in going after your dreams this year?

Resources for Further Exploration

I’ve got oodles more free resources for you here on the blog, on the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel, on social media and live! The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing as well as my favorite work from other creators is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. Would love to be connected to you there, here, on social media, online or in-person!

Blog article-wise, here are some others you might find interesting:

My 2025 Word of the Year, Twenty 25s, explorations in dance, coaching and more coming soon.

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!

Take care of yourself, keep moving mindfully, and let me know how if I can be of service. Would love to connect with you in my email newsletter or on social media as well!

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties &
take leaps of faith through coaching, dance & yoga education

Dance Daily December Recap – 31 Days of Movement to Change Your Life & 7 ways it did

We Need Dance!

Right now we need to feel good and move for change more than ever, therefore I took on a personal challenge to dance every day in December and invited others to join in, too, posting clips to social media.

We moved mindfully and joyfully through the winter holidays and into 2025, and you may choose to take the challenge and repeat as desired at any time of year.

In my initial invitation to the challenge, I provided a variety of prompts and ideas to spark daily dances and I used these myself as well as taking inspiration from various locations in my life, dancing, teaching, and coaching contexts, special events.

Posting clips from my explorations on social media (TikTok, where I shared my Alphabet Superset Micro Choreo Videos, and Instagram) provided accountability and visibility. Now that the month of daily sharing is done, I created a compilation on YouTube set to a piece of music from the library there, “Wolf Moon” (which was this week!) by Unicorn Heads:

Dance Daily December Compilation video on YouTube

31 Days of Dancing

Here are each of the daily dance sketches I shared to social media during the month of December with their original musical pairings:

Week 1

Day 1 Tango practice with Ela in the kitchen

Day 2 Playing before teaching ballet at Tanzraum

Day 3 Embrace, Release, Glow prompts from #createdecember on my yoga mat in the living room

Day 4 Soutenu spin around the kitchen

Day 5 Fall Leaf Prop Improv at Tanzraum

Day 6 Live at Eigelstein Weihnachtsmarkt schaukeln (sp?) with a band

Day 7 Dream, Notice, Understand #createdecember After Saturday chores, interpretive dance on the stairs…

Day 8 Ohne das Stauen band at Atelier Zoozmann @artverwandt

Week 2

Day 9 One hand at home

Day 10 Swirling like a snowflake at Tanzraum 

Day 11 Upper-Body Snow at home

Day 12 Sugarplum fairy fun at Tanzraum

Day 13 found freezing temperatures in Cologne and me snuggling in the flannel of my bed/office/studio…Comfort, Rest, Indulge #createdecember

Day 14 Stairway study

Day 15 Santa’s coming!

Week 3

Day 16 Getting mean with the Grinch at Tanzraum

Day 17 Yoga dancing at home

Day 18 Ballet grand battements giving me fever in the kitchen dance studio

Day 19 Passes to rock around the Christmas tree on my last day of in-studio classes of the year!

Day 20 Friday night foam roller fun in the living room

Day 21 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy party

Day 22 Cozy day at my house

Week 4

Day 23 Taking a little Mirliton promenade on Christmas Eve eve

Day 24 Merry Jingle Bells at the train station Christmas Eve

Day 25 Feliz Navidad! Sliding into Christmas in front of Petra’s tree

Day 26 Ho ho ho on the second day of Christmas at Reiner’s library

Day 27 Back on the foam roller leg beats in the air to “The Muppet Show”

Day 28 Glittery Christmas present improv with my new magic wand (Benu Briolette magenta frost fountain pen)

Day 29 What are you doing New Year’s Eve? at the doorway

(part of Week 1 of 2025!)

Day 30 New Year’s Eve Eve back at my house

Day 31 Celebrating New Year’s with sparklers and fireworks

Completed Dance Daily December page in my Bullet Journal, plus holiday music 2024

Impact/Learnings of Daily Dancing

Here are some of the insights I gained personally from creating and participating in Dance Daily December in 2024:

1. Every single day can be a lot

However modest the daily actions may be–in this case simply moving mindfully for a few moments (though some days part of hours of dancing and teaching), capturing a clip, and sharing it–to commit to any action every single day for a period of time is quite an undertaking! During the holiday season and finishing the year even more so.

Not trying to scare you off, just normalize that though we might “just” be taking on small little minimal challenge each day, establishing a consistent practice of any kind is no cake walk! Life loves to throw obstacles in the way, so overcoming them is part of the creative process here.

2. You must commit to overcoming obstacles

Right away on Day 1 I had planned to be at Tango class at Tanzschule Tanzraum, but didn’t get out the door in time and the train was running late, such that we would be too tardy to be acceptable to us. But Ela and I had intended to review together what we had learned earlier in the year before year’s end, and I was (God willing) 100 percent going to dance and capture it for my Dance Daily December challenge, so we practiced in the kitchen!

3. Staring is the hardest, overcoming inertia

Getting started is always the hardest part (no matter what I want to do or create and how much I love it!), but the body-moving, mood-boosting, thought-provoking, and creatively inspirational consequences are well worth the effort.

4. Creative dance is good for you

I’m always happier and healthier while dancing, whether to wallow and process whatever emotion or stress I’m experiencing or to escape it by fully engaging in the moment. Dancing makes me fully present to the space and surroundings, my own body, and my improvisational or choreographic intention.

The result of regular engagement in such practices is heightened awareness, reflective practice, expanded sense of possibility and problem-solving, impacts in other areas of life, and gradually contributing to a larger body of learning and work among many others. What benefits do you notice when you’re engaging in creativity and dance on a regular basis?

5. Having prompts to spark inspiration helps

On days when I didn’t have a dance or movement class to teach or participate in, I used various impulses I provided in my original invitation email and Get Down Daily 5-day dance challenge as well as prompts from the #createdecember, a challenge from Heather Mattern and Documented Journey aimed at visual artists in various media but also applicable to dance and all artforms.

A daily dance ritual and practice of recording sketches from it helps me notice my defaults, tendencies, favorites in movement. I can see what looks good, feels good, doesn’t quite fit, is more of an internal process of learning or really sings from the audience’s point of view. All valuable information to my ongoing artistic growth and development of my voice and choreographies!

6. Creative constraints are your friends

Constraints of space/frame, brief time, low budget production values generated specific areas of innovation. Some choices were made for me: the video equipment, spaces I had access to, musical accompaniment access and approach to sound. Others had a few possibilities to choose from: how far away to stand and what part of the dancing body to place in the frame, landscape or portrait format for capture (did both depending on various factors, including whether I would use footage for other applications in the future such as YouTube videos (like my Leaf and Swirling Snowflake Improvisations) or just for social media where vertical is preferred. Where exactly to dance, when during the day, in what technique or style?

Making art is a balance of working withing our own restrictions and transcending them to express our truth and potentially connect with others.

7. What you create & share has an impact on others

Unexpected people are following my dancing! I learned that I have followers and fans far away as well as right here in Cologne, and they let me know that they were watching and enjoying my daily dances.

Engaging in this daily challenge helped with follow-through on commitment to learning new techniques and styles, getting out of my comfort zone.

It is vulnerable and awkward to share transparently my creative explorations in real time, the hits and misses, the very process of creation itself, but when others do so it inspires me so greatly that I am moved to do the same.

Though I’ve been sharing videos on YouTube and social media for over five years, it can still be difficult not to watch back and edit with a critical, perfectionistic eye, but I can see my own joy in the footage, a good indication of what it is like to be in my classes and what boons you too might receive from the practice.

May my imperfect efforts provide the same welcoming doorway for you to make your mark!

Keep Dancing Through Life

I hope you will join me to keep dancing and making art on a regular basis and witness the transformation that a mindful movement and creative dance practice can cause in your life!

Dance at home, in your car, in a class in-studio or online, in the club… just dance and let me know how I can support you in discovering what moves you. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary or even good, but it just might be!

Here is the video compilation of the 5-Day Get Down Daily Challenge on YouTube
Resources for Further Exploration
Questions for Reflection
  • What is your favorite dance style or technique?
  • Which type of dance or movement haven’t you tried yet that you’d like to sample?
  • What creative practices do most enjoy?
  • How could a mindful movement or creative dance enhance your life?
  • What do you dream of creating?

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact.

Take care of yourself, keep moving mindfully, and let me know how I can be of service!

Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach

helping multi-passionate creatives

dance through difficulty

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