November featured the full Beaver Moon, our last gasp of Autumn’s colors, art and culture at Museumsnacht Koeln, and a parade of birthday celebrations. Cooler temperatures even brought the first snow of the season, the earliest I’ve experienced since moving to Germany!
It being the month of American Thanksgiving, I took time to be grateful for my life and everything in it. I am truly grateful for all that I have and for my community especially (you!). Fortunate I was able to talk to my parents on the phone on Thanksgiving and so glad to hear them both well enough to enjoy a festive meal. Hope you had a lovely feast if you celebrate.
Sadly there will be no no official World Ballet Day in 2024, which usually takes place in November, but hopefully this online celebration of dance will be back in 2025. The first Monday in November was Fountain Pen Day and that is now a thing that interests me, as I dove into pens and inks this fall and did a good bit of writing during the month.
Mom’s knee surgery was a success, the U.S. Presidential Election not so much.
November was not so easy
In teaching, the month was very productive, continuing to focus on well-being, self-care, Ballet technique basics & exam preparation for my students. Amidst an eventful and emotional month, I continued to create and publish and enjoy the artistic work of others.
Took good care of my own well-being as well, now that I have full Health Insurance coverage I’m tackling preventive care and my first stop was the Gynecologist. Things are fine, it’s a relief to be keeping tabs and be able to be proactive.
Honestly reeling with fearful imaginings of what disasters may come with a crook again as president of the United States. I needed to take time to process my emotions, then connect with and share resources for productively (and when possible, positively) responding to dire times, such as:
- Susanna Barkataki shows us how to apply yoga philosophy to distressing election results
- Post-election yoga for compassion and composure (30 minutes) from Ashley Hagen
- Turn the Page Meditation from Yoga with Adriene
- Grounding exercise for anxiety from Naomi Gottlieb-Miller
- What environmentalists need to do post-election from The Simple Environmentalist
- What you need to know about Project 2025 from Illustrate to Educate
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.
November brought a fall-ish, harvest & gratitude theme to my BuJo, and I shared my initial setup on Instagram here. I continued to update my Monthly, Weekly, and Daily logs and Annual Collections and especially reveled in setting up my December spreads. A bit of Christmassy decor was good for my soul.
Ordered supplies for my 2025 Annual and Spring Seasonal Books and considered my upcoming Word of the Year, themes and projects, visual design theme. Also watched a lot of fun videos of folks’ Notebook Lineups and Planner/BuJo Set-Ups for the New Year and it’s getting me excited, though I want to savor the holiday season to the full extent as well.
Teaching & Coaching
Regular Mindful Movement classes in Balletlicious Ballet Barre+ and Yummy Gentle Yoga continued throughout, and studio classes in Ballet and Barre a Terre continued, working at full capacity.
There are a couple of coaching slots available this season and I will keep you posted on further offerings as they come together!
Writing & Publishing Articles
In November I published four articles to the blog:
- Boo October is Through – 2024 Month 10 Review: I managed to vote in the US Primary Election and was worried about the outcome, as well as various other concerns personal and professional. A short visit with family members I haven’t seen in ages was lovely. Our weekend escape to Mendig with friends was a refreshing adventure. My new fountain pen hobby provided creative diversion.
- Dealing with Difficult Developments – 15 Ways to Cope with Challenges & Setbacks: Hard times come to us all, so how can we bounce back and recover? Here are the tools that work for me when I need to cope with difficult developments and which I share with clients and students to support their commitment to what’s important in their lives despite setbacks.
- Dance Daily December & into the New Year – 31 Days of Movement to Change Your Life: Right now we need to feel good and move for change more than ever, therefore I’m taking on a personal challenge to dance every day in December and inviting you to join in, too! Thus we will move mindfully and joyfully through the winter holidays and into 2025.
- Sourcing Ballet Somatically – Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating Movement Techniques: This paper takes the approach of critical pedagogy to investigate practices in integrating somatics into teaching ballet technique. Originally part of my MFA in Dance research methods work in 2012, the conversation continues about how to best train dancers to honor the tradition of classical ballet while also educating the whole dancer and person in contemporary society.
Filming & Sharing Videos
My YouTube Channel and Blog have been where I’ve seen the most growth in visibility and with your help I may be able to reach 1,000 subscribers to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel before the end of 2024!
I published six videos to the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel in November:
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 my favorite work from other creators is to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter.
I sent four weekly Email Newsletters in November, full of value-packed resources for fellow creatives, and also posted four times to Instagram. It is my honor to be connected to you there, here, on social media, online and in-person!
Creative Challenges
Some folks take on National Novel Writing Month/NaNoWriMo in November, and I have also participated in the past. Given my current focus on Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, my project for the month was creating a map of my life so far as a visual brainstorm of stories and structure. A new related challenge is the Rough Draft Project. Also preparing for Dance Daily December, while others worked on creating Create December, Vlogmas, Inkvent, and other wintery projects.
For my own November creative projects, I continued to work on weekly Letter-Writing, RAD Ballet Exam preparation for my students, working in my journals and writing with my new fountain pens in addition to regular article-writing, choreography, video filming and editing.
Twenty-Four 24s in 2024
In November, I read my 24th book of the year and I anticipate completing further “24s” in December as well, if not 100% completion then a good effort made. Gamification makes tracking statistics more fun, no doubt.
Inspired by Jess/JashiiCorrin on YouTube), this creative challenge is a playful way to track various leading metrics, projects and activities I wish to keep an eye on.
Having found such a structure useful this year and in 2023, for 2025 I may reduce the number of categories to 20, and raise the actions by one for a catchy “Twenty 25’s in 2025.”
Media Musings
My November in reading, listening, and viewing pleasures:
Art & Culture
Museumsnacht Koeln including exhibitions “Handle With Care,” “Not Afraid of Art,” and “Antifeminismus,” and finished off the night with a Spanish rapper.
Books & Reading
Books Read
Still reading along on my nonfiction picks (poetry, scripture, self-help), and I completed two novels in November:
- Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan was the 24th book I’ve completed this year 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.
- I finished my fall-y daily reading odyssey, A Toast to Autumn: A Collection of Cozy Fall And Halloween Poems, Poetry for Good Vibes During the Season by Alexis Jean and find that taken singly the poems are cute and there are a few gems, but I don’t recommend reading a poem each day in fall as I did, this was much too repetitive, the author being very committed to rhyme scheme and specific imagery. Still will probably recommend and return to certain goodies for the mood.
- Purchased a new anthology to take me through 2025, 365 Poems for Life: An Uplifting Collection for Every Day of the Year compiled by Allie Esiri and was immediately touched and inspired!
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 & Albums
It was time to update and enjoy my Harvest & Thanksgiving Songs Playlist on YouTube, including tracks such as:
- “Home” from Zero 7, an oldie but forever top fave
- Hayley Sales shared “Present Enough for Me” and I’m pleased to see she’s releasing tracks as a sort of Advent Calendar this month
- Muppets “Ode to Joy”
Viewing Highlights
Films
Movies watched last month:
- “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” Film (we watched “Beetlejuice” for Halloween) new Comedy/Horror
- “How it Ends” 2021 film is both apocalyptically dark and uplifting
Series
Series streamed in November:
- We waited until the entire new season (#4) of “Only Murders in the Building” was on Disney+ before re-subscribing so we could watch at our own pace
Videos
- Radio City Rockettes in the rain at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade such a classic, I always try to catch them even if it’s after-the-fact on YouTube like this year
- World Ballet Day such as it is, “Ballet (Nerds) Day” from Ballet Reign on YouTube, a lovely collection of dancing from around the world
- Everything you think you know about Thanksgiving is wrong from Abby Cox is a fascinating and entertaining historical study of this beloved holiday
- Ariana Grande and Kamala Harris’ Saturday Night Live skits
Questions for Reflection
- What do you want to remember from November, the past month, quarter, and year?
- Which books, musical selections, and viewing do you currently recommend?
- How are you planning for a creative and festive season?
- What are your favorite late-fall-into-winter treats?
- What is your vision for 2025?
Resources for Further Exploration
- Quantum Leaping into 2024 Word of the Year Article
- Twenty-Four 24s in 2024 Article
- To-Enjoy List for Quarter 4 2024 Article
- Say the Magic Words Article
- Why Bother Distinguishing Your Why? Personal Purpose Article
- Analog Journals for Creativity Article
Let’s keep in touch, keep dancing, and never hesitate to let me know if I can be of service, would love to see you in my email newsletter or on social media!
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