August.
My birthday month. A month of salt air, of wine bottles sipped away, of Taylor Swift lyrics looping. A month where I feel an intense pressure to make every moment count.
This year was a little different, though. I’ve been carrying a kind of pain I’ve never known before, and was finally at a point where I could feel my spark flickering alight again. Naturally, I found myself turning to Taylor Swift again and again.
You know that moment when a song lyric suddenly takes on a different or a deeper meaning to you? Mine was “to live for the hope of it all.”
That one line suddenly just meant something so different. It wasn’t about the heartbreak of an unrequited love or a love that ended before it began. It suddenly meant that sometimes in life, we have to live for the hope of things. We have to live intentionally and purposefully, even if we don’t know what the outcome will be. We have to live with our hearts open and trust that things will work out the way they are meant to. The ending might be different from what we expected, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be better.
Hope isn’t naive – it’s abundant. It’s choosing to believe that things will work out. In a way we never saw coming, but in a way that is better than we ever could have seen coming.
So I made a promise to myself: to make August intentional. To pour myself into things that make me feel alive. Healing wasn’t going to come from one big change but maybe, just maybe, from many small ones. Spoiler alert: it totally did.
Naturally, this started with a to-do list (organised healing for the win).
- Try one new thing a week
- A new blog post
- Intentional connection with one person every week
- A solo date every week
- Do a birthday journal entry
- Make each day intentional
- Live for the hope of it all
Try One New Thing a Week
This was purely to add life to my days. Sometimes we can get so stuck in our routines and forget that life is full of little discoveries waiting for us. So I tried something new each week:
- A cocktail bar I’d never been to (paired with trying cocktails I’d never had before – highly recommend a Strawberry Cosmopolitan)
- A tattoo that I’ve been dreaming about
- Baked Malva Pudding Rusks (a solid 8.78/10, next batch 9.12/10)
- A movie I hadn’t seen (bonus – it made me cry)
- A new coffee order (Spanish Lattes, you are beautiful)
- A new restaurant, a dish I’d never ordered, a wine-tasting evening
Small things, yes. But each one stitched a little more colour back into my days.
A New Blog Post
You’re reading it.
Intentional Connection
Every week, I reached out. Sometimes it’s a coffee, sometimes just a WhatsApp message, and sometimes a long catch-up with someone I love. Sometimes that intentional connection was with myself.
I learned that nurturing relationships, even in the smallest ways, doesn’t just make others feel loved. It fills me up, too.
Solo Dates
This was my favourite. I took myself on dates: sunset walks, bubble baths, reading in bed with tea and cookies, long drives blasting my favourite songs, coffee dates, journaling on the beach, ordering my favourite food, drinking my favourite wine, watching my favourite movies, and cooking myself a lovely dinner.
Somewhere in between the coffee cups and beach walks, I fell back in love with myself. Slowly, gently, intentionally.
A Birthday Journal Entry
On my birthday, I wrote 8 before 28. Eight goals I want to reach before next year. Birthdays are beautiful pauses, little checkpoints that remind us: you can’t plan everything, but you can choose a vision.
Intentions Each Day
Each morning, I set three goals:
- Administrative (emails, appointments, phone calls – things that ease daily stress)
- Physical (a workout, a walk, or sometimes just giving myself permission to rest)
- Emotional (journaling, music, check-ins, cries, dancing it out, letting myself feel)
This grounded me. It reminded me that it’s all about tackling one thing at a time, and healing isn’t just “getting over something”. It’s about moving with intention through it.
Live for the Hope of It All
Somewhere in August, something shifted.
I started to realise that every tiny act (the journaling, walks, laughter, new experiences, quiet moments) wasn’t just about healing. It was about hope. Hope isn’t a passive act. It’s powerful. It’s choosing to believe that the future can hold something beautiful, even if we don’t know what that looks like yet.
August was unpredictable, beautiful, and magical.
By choosing to live intentionally for the hope of it all, I found my spark again. I found my healing. I found me.
For anyone else carrying the weight of their own ‘August’ – you made it. You are the hope. Hold onto it and let it lead you back to yourself.
All the love, Jay.
Just Jay 