At this time of year, the world seems to speed up. The invitations, the errands, the noise, the pressure to squeeze more into the calendar—more plans, more tasks, more proof that we’re keeping up.
But my body—and something deeper than my body—has been asking for the opposite.
What I’m feeling is a soft unraveling. A quiet purging. A gentle closing of doors that don’t need to stay open anymore. It feels less like hustle and more like exhale. Less like “what’s next?” and more like “what’s mine to finish, honour and lay to rest?”
In numerology, 2025 is a collective Year 9—an ending year. A completion year. A final chapter before the slate wipes clean. And next year—2026—begins a Year 1 cycle of new beginnings. I can feel that. I can feel the tide pulling back so the new wave can arrive.
I’m not here to start anything new right now.
I’m here to close.
And interestingly, this mirrors my astrology too. With the Sun in Sagittarius, it’s moving through my 12th house—the final house before the cycle begins again for me in Capricorn season. The last stretch before the reset. The archetypal place of clearing, cleansing and calling my spirit back home before my next trip around the Sun as a January baby.
It’s the energetic equivalent of turning out the lights, locking the door and whispering thank you.
So instead of rushing, I’ve been returning to presence.
To pleasure.
To baths and books.
To walks and food.
To orgasms and laughter.
To slow mornings and quiet evenings.
To tending my garden and tending myself.
And somewhere in that slowness, a clarity arrived:
This isn’t a pause before my real life.
This is my real life.
For so long, I treated my work like a separate container—something I had to grind through, prove myself through and muscle my way into. Time became a pressure cooker. I’d try to squeeze the weekly to-do list into a single day. I’d try to fit a full creative life into corporate-shaped expectations, even though I’ve always known:
I’m not built for that world.
For starters, I don’t like being told what to do.
I don’t thrive in (someone else’s) rigid structure.
I don’t have consistent energy as a (Human Design) Manifestor.
And I’m not here to work in long, prescribed, uninterrupted stretches—unless I’m experiencing a creative urge and then I can produce months’ worth of work in a week because it’s aligned for me to do that…. but that’s something for another post.
I’m here to work a little, play a little, rest a LOT, create a little, garden a little—and live in a rhythm where life and work aren’t two different worlds.
What I’m building is a life I can be generously compensated for living.
And with that realisation came something almost childlike and thrilling:
I want to embrace the lifestyle publication energy.
The online magazine vibe I dreamed about when I was young—the kind of space that feels like a cozy ritual, a cup of tea, a window into a beautifully lived life.
Not content for productivity.
Not content for pressure.
Not content for performance.
Content for pleasure.
Content for presence.
Content for the art of living.
So this email isn’t an announcement or a rebrand.
It’s simply a truth:
I’m leaning into lifestyle.
I’m creating from what feels nourishing.
I’m building rhythms that honour the woman I actually am.
And I’m letting my work reflect the life I’m living—not run ahead of it.
I’ve been quietly working away on my version of an online lifestyle magazine and I’d love you to check out rhianbudd.com, the new home of my writing and creative expression.
Despite the mainstream narrative, this season isn’t about achievement.
It’s about completion.
It’s about softness.
It’s about coming home to yourself before beginning again.
When the new year arrives—and when the Sun moves into Capricorn—I’ll be ready. Not because I pushed harder, but because I rested deeper. Because I closed what was meant to close. Because I honored the ending.
For now, I’m letting this be a slow, delicious wind-down.
A final chapter written with presence.
A lifestyle shaped around pleasure.
A life I get to live—and create from—every single day.
This will be my last email of the year as I give you, my beautiful readers, the same spaciousness I’m leaning into. May we all wrap up 2025 with softness, clarity and a deeper sense of self—and I’ll be back in the New Year with more stories from the in-between.
If you're looking for something nourishing to sink into over the holidays, I’ve curated a summer reading list featuring the most memorable books I read in 2025 — from cozy escapes to intense, transformative stories.
Happiest of Holidays and Merriest of Christmases to you, beautiful friend.
Rhi xx
