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.
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:
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:
- Leaps & Bounds in 2024 – Reflecting on a Year’s Highs & Lows: I was so delighted to complete my annual reflection, with highlights, accomplishments, challenges, and lots of creativity
- Float in 2025 – Word / Intention of the Year: having wrapped up the previous year, it was time to share my vision for this year
- Building a Healthy Relationship with Body & Food – Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025: a collection of updated resources and my past creations on the topic including interviews with experts
- Twenty 25s in 2025: Analog Project Planning & Action Tracking, Creative Bullet Journal Style: how I will make my intention and Word of the Year come true, taking and tracking my actions
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 on YouTube
- Peek in my Pen Case Ditty Bag – Writing Utensils & Supplies video on YouTube
- Writing, Memoir & Storytelling Tools video on YouTube
- International Women’s Day #AccelerateAction Statement video on YouTube shared in preparation for Women’s History Month and IWD on March 8th
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:
- Leaps & Bounds in 2024, completed Annual Review, declarations for 2025 email newsletter
- Floating through 2025: Word of the Year, inspiring Music & Art, and a Peek in my Pen Case email newsletter
- Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Storytelling Tools, Koeln Karneval, and upcoming… International Women’s Day email newsletter
- Koeln Karneval, Twenty 25s in 2025, promoting human rights for International Women’s Day email newsletter
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.
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.
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…
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?
Resources for Further Exploration
- January was Gently Jumping into the New Year – 2025 Month 1 Reflection Article
- Float in 2025 – Word / Intention of the Year Article
- Twenty 25s in 2025: Analog Project Planning & Action Tracking, Creative Bullet Journal Style Article
- Leaps & Bounds in 2024 – Reflecting on a Year’s Highs & Lows Article
- Quantum Leaping into 2024 Word of the Year Article
- Twenty-Four 24s in 2024 Article
- Say the Magic Words Article
- Analog Journals for Creativity Article
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