There’s a stillness to the days between Christmas and New Year, the kind that seems to hang softly in the air. Shops open a little later, roads are quieter, and even the light feels slower. It’s the time of year when the world, for a brief moment, exhales. And in that quiet space, many of us start to think about the year ahead in a gentler, more grounded way.

Lately, at Bath House, we’ve been thinking a lot about movement, not the big, dramatic kind, but the small everyday journeys we all make without much thought. The walk to work. The dash to the shop. The early bike ride you promise yourself you’ll do more often. The commute that becomes a small ritual, shaping the beginning and end of each day.

When we looked back at our 2024 employee survey, a simple questionnaire about how our team travels to work, we found something quietly uplifting. A good number of our team walk or cycle. Quite a few work from home. Most live within five miles of where they work. It wasn’t the numbers themselves that struck us, but what they hinted at: a rhythm of life that’s slower, more rooted, and gently connected to place.

Because here, in Cumbria, in the Dales, in the northern towns and villages many of our team call home, movement often happens at human speed. People walk because you can walk. They cycle because the roads invite it. They choose to live close to work because community still has a pull. And all of this, without trying too hard, has an impact: on wellbeing, on mood, on carbon footprint, and on how we feel in the world.

This time of year lends itself to that kind of reflection. The idea of doing less but feeling more. Moving slower but noticing more. Perhaps it’s the winter air or the way the landscape seems stripped back to essentials. Perhaps it’s just the in-between-ness of these days, a natural pause before the year gathers speed again.

And it got us thinking about gentle habits that support wellbeing without the pressure of resolutions.

Walking more, not as exercise, but as a way to clear the head.

Cycling when the weather allows, even just once a week.

Trying something new that shifts the body in ways that feel joyful rather than dutiful, wild swims, morning Pilates, a winter yoga class in a village hall, or simply taking the long route home.

Even working from home now and then, if you can, to reclaim a little breathing room.

In rural places like ours, there are also realities. Public transport can be patchy. Weather is sometimes dramatic. Distances aren’t always easy. But that’s why the small choices matter, the morning walk our team takes, the lift shared with a colleague, the cosy work-from-home day when the roads freeze. These little shifts ripple outward more than we think.

Reflecting on our Sustainability

And at Bath House, these everyday habits shape the business in quiet ways too. They influence how we think about sustainability with our vegan skincare and artisan fragrances, what we prioritise in our environmental work, how we design products rooted in landscape and wellbeing, and even how our teams feel walking into their day.

Nature teaches us this: wellbeing doesn’t always appear in the big gestures. It often lives in the in-between moments, the crisp walk to work where you can see your breath, the cycle ride past open fields, the decision to slow down and take the scenic route, even on a weekday morning.

So if you’re using these soft winter days to think about the year ahead, perhaps consider this: not resolutions, but rhythms.

Not goals, but gentle rituals that nurture both you and the world you move through.

The kind of habits that make life feel more spacious, more grounded, more connected to the season you’re in.

We’re wishing you a quiet, restorative start to the new year, with fresh air, soft light, and movement that feels like its own kind of wellbeing.