More gentle donkey energy than the fire horse dynamic this year.

The Year of the Fire Horse

It’s clear at the moment that we can’t really escape talking about the energy around the Year of the Fire Horse.

As much as I’m definitely ready to shift my energy away from everything that 2025 was for me personally, I’m also aware of how much hype surrounds the Fire Horse. It’s described as passionate, charismatic, dramatic, action-orientated, courageous and ambitious. It carries magnetic presence, high confidence and a drive to make big moves and move forward quickly.

On its shadow side, it can show up as impatience, rebellion, conflict and burnout from pushing too hard. Collectively, the energy tends to feel fast-paced, emotionally charged and resistant to restriction.

In a spiritual sense, I am personally choosing to move forward sustainably and gently this year.

As you know, we have been looking at achieving CIC status, and I have decided to slow the pace of growth right down at I Am The Storm Yoga. We have had incredible growth in the first couple of months of the year, and in light of that and my long-term dreams for how I want this to naturally evolve I am going to consciously move everything forward at a slow and sustainable pace.

One thing about being an ex-police officer is that I have a yardstick. I recognise when the pace in a business or working environment starts to pick up in a way that becomes overwhelming for teachers, for admin staff, and for anyone operating behind the scenes.

We have been so lucky with our level of growth and the support from the local community. I truly want to take this forward sustainably and safely. In order to do that, I’m intentionally slowing the pace of growth down.

What does this mean?

We have new classes starting at the beginning of March which we will limit to 10 people for yoga and 12 for Emma and Aaron’s fitness offerings. We have taken on two new managers too which might seem counter intuitive it is not.

Although this may look like growth, it is actually about spreading class numbers out so sessions feel less crowded in our lovely little studio and more spacious on the mat.

It is time to step into stewardship rather than a constant build, strive and push. Constant growth is not always needed sometimes it is about accepting exactly where you are and looking at what work needs to be done in the present.

The new managers are there to calmly facilitate your arrival into classes, check everyone is booked on, and help deal with any admin within the system. This is about steadiness, not speed. We ask you to mindfully park your cars too. Try to be on time to respect your teacher and your fellow class mates, we understand that life will not always make this possible and we know a lot of people are navigating a great deal in their lives and we have compassion for that.

If you are rushing to get to your yoga class maybe stopping to pause would be more beneficial.

Personally, the yoga path is here to slow me down. I have always operated at a fast pace and have come close to burnout more than once in my life. I refuse to be one of the wellness businesses where the founder or any member of staff is burnt out while trying to facilitate what should be a calming, grounding, ancient practice rooted in returning to our peaceful centre.

I don’t follow yoga for performance. I don’t follow it to film poses for Instagram. I have no issue with anyone who does I think it’s wonderful that yoga has such a wide following in the Western world.

But I stand by the fact that, for me personally, I Am The Storm Yoga was founded from a place where I had to slow down, reconnect to myself, and deal with serious mental health challenges that came from being deeply out of balance and from being told I would not be a mother in this lifetime. For me their really is a deep rooted reason I do what I do.

Peace will always remain at the core of what we do.

Being nonprofit means we get to choose our pace.

The pace I choose this year is slow despite the Fire Horse energy. A Fire Horse can be powerful, but it can also be harnessed and gently guided forward with calm, grounded momentum.

This is my energy for this year, and I hope it filters down into everything we do at I Am The Storm Yoga.

I am making a conscious decision to seek good advice about how we move forward as a small business. We have the most beautiful dream of how this can work, and in order for it to be sustainable and viable, the pace has to be manageable for everyone in this tiny business.

At this point in my life, I realise that constantly striving, pushing, growing and building is not what I want. I genuinely choose to live at a slower pace, and I feel fortunate that I can make that decision for myself.

I do not want to operate where there is no time to walk my dogs, meet my friends and enjoy my life. I value simplicity, I do not need a life full of materialistic items but I do need gentle connection and good souls also choosing consciously not to get sucked into the wild ride life can be.

In a world where our nervous systems are frazzled from constantly operating in the sympathetic state, I hope I Am The Storm Yoga can be a place where it filters down from the top that we all need to pause, breathe and simply rebel against the pace the world would have us believe we must keep up with.

As much as I love the positive energy associated with the Year of the Fire Horse, personally I may be moving more at the pace of a gentle donkey.

I hope some of you will join me in this movement to remain mindful and calm, using breath, asana, meditation and journalling to support ourselves in staying healthy and mentally well this year

I really hope we can remain supported and steady as we build the real foundations that we need.

Thankyou for reading

Clare