Why I Created the New Moon Reset for Leaders
The older I get, the more clearly I see how deeply connected we are to everything happening around us. And not just in our teams and businesses, but in the natural world too. We grow up hearing lines in songs and poems about being tied to the moon and the tides, and as it turns out, there’s more truth in those metaphors than we give them credit for. Our systems respond to rhythms we don’t always pay attention to. The moon is one of them. And leadership, surprisingly, is another.
For years, I’ve noticed a pattern: every month, leaders review numbers, track milestones, check in with their teams, and move through meetings that tell them what is happening. But there’s rarely, if ever, a dedicated space to ask, How is this impacting something bigger? What’s shifting inside of me as a leader? What wants to change?
We go from one task to the next. One meeting to the next. One problem to the next.
And without deliberately creating space to pause, reflect, and breathe, we miss the insights that actually make us better leaders.
Where the Idea Began
Before the New Moon Reset ever had a name, I was already doing a version of this work in my coaching sessions: monthly planning, guided reflection, intentional reset points. It was effective, but something was missing. I didn’t yet have the right container.
Then, during my yoga teacher training, something clicked.
Our training happened over a new moon, and we participated in a ceremony that helped us understand the energetic difference between a full moon and a new moon. I remember looking at the simple moon icons on the calendar and suddenly seeing them differently:
A full moon is about releasing.
A new moon is about beginning.
When the moon is new, it’s an empty space that’s ready to be filled.
And I thought: Oh… this is it. This is the cadence leaders need.
The new moon doesn’t happen at the beginning of the month when leaders are already overloaded with budgeting, reporting, and planning. It arrives in the middle, a moment when there’s still time left to shift, recalibrate, realign, and finish the month stronger than it started.
It felt perfect. I knew I had to bring this into my work.
The Gap I Saw in Leaders Everywhere
Leaders are often praised for their focus on doing. But the deeper value, the kind that creates clarity and confidence, comes from pausing long enough to reflect.
I see so many leaders with brilliant ideas trapped in their heads. They’re juggling team needs, organizational expectations, and the constant pressure to be “on.” Without structured reflective space, everything feels chaotic.
And here’s something I’ve learned from movement work and from my own practice: clarity often arrives when your body is moving.
Some of the best ideas don’t come from sitting at a desk. They come on walks, during yoga, or while breathing deeply in a moment of presence. But unless we immediately capture those insights, they disappear the moment we step back into the noise of our day.
I wanted leaders to walk out of a session not only feeling clearer, but literally holding that clarity in their hands by capturing it on paper, organizing it into a plan, ready to guide them forward.
Why This Fits the Nimble Up Approach
At its core, the New Moon Reset combines three things I believe leaders need most: movement, reflection, and actionable planning.
In Agile Project Management (one of the foundational pillars of my work) we always do a retrospective before we plan. We look back, then we intentionally look forward. The New Moon Reset mirrors that structure but adds something Agile doesn’t explicitly include: the movement that helps create new pathways in the brain, regulate the nervous system, and unlock deeper insights.
Traditionally, when I’ve incorporated movement with clients, it’s focused on breathwork that’s just enough to open the mind. This is different. This is breath and body working together to generate clarity. The neuroscience supports it. The leadership research supports it. And the lived experience of hundreds of leaders supports it too.
The New Moon Reset is simply the next evolution of the work I’ve always done. Just with a more holistic, scientifically backed, and human-centered layer added to it.
What Comes Next
This is the heart behind the New Moon Reset for Leaders: a monthly practice designed to help you step out of reactivity and into intentional leadership.
In the next posts, I’ll walk you through what actually happens in each Reset session. How we move, how we reflect, and how we build a plan you can immediately act on.
If you’re feeling the pull to lead with greater clarity, calm, and purpose, I’d love to have you join us at our first session this coming January. The new moon is a fresh start waiting to be filled. Let’s fill it intentionally.