Newsletter 1: Intentionality...the Velcro of manifestation
Natalie Castel
December 11, 2025
A Sunday Coaching Ritual with Nats
Beautiful human,
As we move into December, I want to invite you into a gentle, conscious practice of signing off 2025 with intention. A practice that allows you to put down what hasn’t served you… and honour — deeply — what has.
This year has held so much uncertainty: global politics, war, AI, economic turmoil. Every country has been navigating its own turbulence. And with uncertainty comes its companion: anxiety. Both collectively and individually.
Anxiety causes the kind of overwhelm where we aren’t able to separate what’s in our control from what isn’t. It causes us to live in our heads – we ruminate, spiral and get stuck in a helpless, limbo-like space where nothing feels clear.
So today, over your cup of coffee and in your own safe, cosy corner, I want to walk you through a three-step practice that gently untangles the “spaghetti mess” in your mind and returns the power back to your hands.
Are you ready, Lovely?
First...let's arrive.
Take three slow, deep breaths.
Let your shoulders drop.
Let your jaw soften.
Let yourself land here, in this present moment — the only place where you have
full control, where you are safe, and where you are perfect exactly as you are.
Moving into December offers a golden opportunity: A conscious wrap-up of 2025 — honest, intentional, and clarifying.
And if you’re anything like me, your emotional, mental, and physical bandwidth might be running on fumes. So let’s do this with compassion, self-support, and zero judgement, ok?
What experiences (positive and/or negative) have had a significant impact on
you this year?
And what did those experiences do inside you?
Use these prompts to guide you:
- What thoughts did the experience bring up about yourself or others?
- How did your body respond?
- How long did the impact last?
- What did the experience make you believe about yourself?
- Where is your heart at right now?
- What does your nervous system feel like?
This is about acknowledging how 2025 has landed in your system — both the beautiful and the bruising parts.
Give yourself time here.
Write it out if it helps — a brain-dump can create a shift in perspective that talking
to yourself in your head simply can’t.
And when you’re ready, let’s gently move forward.
Holding the awareness of how this year has impacted you, this second step asks:
What have I learned because of what happened to me?
Consider:
- What have I learned about myself that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise?
- What can I take from these lessons and apply in my life?
- How did I grow through the experience?
- What new perspectives have opened up for me?
Pause.
Do you notice a shift?
A subtle empowerment?
A softening?
A clearer breath?
This shift is important.
It’s telling you that you hold the power. You can be both bruised AND wise;
vulnerable AND strong.
Ready for the final step?
Now that you’ve reflected on how 2025 happened to you and for you…
What would you like to put down?
Maybe it’s the self-judgement.
The overthinking.
The “should haves” and “could haves.”
The resentment that’s been brewing alongside your morning coffee.
If there are words you wish you’d spoken, whisper them into your cuppa now.
Honour your truth — it’s safe with you. Remember…no judgement.
What no longer serves you?
And what would it take to release it?
Now for the beautiful part:
What has served you?
What makes you feel proud, empowered, free, excited?
Let yourself celebrate that. Honour it. Hold it gently.
Well done. You’ve just moved yourself — powerfully — from the overwhelm of
2025 into the acceptance and gratitude of it.
As we step into December...
How can you carry this awareness with you into your long-awaited break?
What intentions do you have for this month — and for 2026?
What do you want to take with you?
And what belongs firmly in 2025, thanked and released?
Intentionality is the Velcro that makes the important things stick.
It keeps you awake, aware, aligned and able to create what you truly want.
But, Lovely — remember this:
Kindness gets shit done.
Not pressure. Not perfection.
Kindness.
So let’s close with one last, soul-check-in question:
Where is your heart at now, Lovely?
Take a breath and listen.
I’m right here with you.
In love and light,
Nats xxx
P.S. If you are really grappling with the effect of 2025 and need some extra
support, reach out – I’m here. Let’s work through it together.
What to read next
A timely Substack essay challenging outdated age-based limits for HRT and advocating for a personalized approach to hormone health.
Every year, about 1.3 million American women enter menopause—the stage of life when
your estrogen levels diminish and your periods stop completely. It’s a natural part
of aging and nothing to fear.
That said, the symptoms of menopause—including hot flushes, low sex drive, trouble
sleeping, weight gain, UTIs and vaginal dryness, brain fog, heart palpitations, muscle
and joint aches, and mood changes—can be miserable and debilitating. You also lose the
health benefits of estrogen itself, like heart and brain protection, says Avrum Z.
Bluming, MD, a hematologist and medical oncologist who has spent decades investigating
the benefits of estrogen. Women can avoid many of these problems with one treatment:
hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. Alternatively called MHT, for menopausal hormone
therapy, HRT refers to the combination of estrogen and progesterone given to women who
still have their uterus; estrogen alone is given to women who have had a hysterectomy.
Unfortunately, HRT remains controversial, due mostly to the results of the decades-old
Women’s Health Initiative, the largest study done on the health of postmenopausal women
in the United States. In 2002, findings from the WHI were released suggesting that women
on HRT had greater risks of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and, scariest of all, breast
cancer; as a result, millions of women of menopausal age either quit or avoided it at all
costs. Subsequent studies have walked back these claims, but many women remain gun-shy
about taking estrogen. The fallout has been enormous: Among menopausal women in the
United States, just under 5 percent are currently on HRT, and it’s been estimated that
between 2002 and 2012, over 90,000 American women died prematurely, mainly from heart
disease, as a result of avoiding HRT.
Hormones regulate so many of the systems in your body. At times, it seems unclear exactly what each of them accomplishes, or why certain levels of particular hormones are floating around. This conversation comes up, especially around perimenopause, and even post-menopause, when specific hormone therapies can be utilized as treatments for bothersome menopause-related symptoms like hot flashes, low energy, and low libido. Estrogen is the most common hormone used in hormone replacement therapy, also known as menopausal replacement therapy, but what about testosterone? Yes, we’re talking about that hormone, the one that’s typically known as the “male” hormone. That’s right — testosterone is found in women’s bodies (at one-tenth of the amount in men’s bodies, but still) and any people born as female. Ovaries make testosterone and technically produce it at even higher levels than estrogen. And during menopause, when the ovaries slow down in their functioning, estrogen levels lower, as do testosterone levels in the body. Just like estrogen, testosterone can be safely used as a hormone replacement therapy during menopause. Still, not many people know that, because it’s not well-studied or officially FDA-approved for women. Keep on reading for everything you didn’t know about testosterone in women, testosterone replacement therapy, and how to know if it could be the right treatment for you.