Today’s #aepiecesofus prompt is reflection. I asked little boy to snap this as jake was making me laugh during dinner.
I never like to leave home and then I’m always grateful when I do. I just listened to Brene Brown’s talk on sounds true where she talks about the Power of Vulnerability and it reminded me about the importance of play.
I most definitely do not value play enough and my plan this week is to play and laugh and do nothing every chance I get.
Today’s #aepiecesofus prompt is full body. I could write pages of posts about my body and all that is wrapped up in my feelings about it.
Instead I decided to tell the story of a new practice I started as a result of my 100-day project around radical wellness.
I now start each morning with a 5-minute kindness meditation while still lying in bed and I end my days with 10 minutes of restorative yoga.
No one would compliment my quiet, calm way of going through life. I am always go go go. I speak fast, listen to books and videos on 2-3x speed, I like to get places faster, get things done done done. Most days, I push myself emotionally, psychologically, mentally, and physically.
Years ago, when I did yoga regularly, the last minute spent on shavasana was my least favorite. I would lie there and think of the millions of things I still had to get done. Or I’d start feeling sad about someone I let down, etc. I often felt like I might jump out of my skin during that minute.
The restorative yoga is like taking that minute and extending it to the whole class.
And yet I’ve grown to love it.
Ending my days by slowing down, with poses that make my body relax and feel supported has been one of the best gifts I can give myself.
Yes to trying new things. Yes to taking care of myself. Yes to yoga. Yes to rest.
Today’s #aepiecesofus prompt is half of a face. Little boy and I were snuggling on the couch so I asked if I can snap a photo of us and told him it would have to cover half my face. As soon as I started facing him, he immediately started being silly and making me laugh.
So we got his half a face and me mostly laughing. I love it. I love him. I love how he makes me laugh. I love how he doesn’t take anything too seriously and is always funny and kind and generous.
I have no idea how we got lucky enough to have this joyful boy in our lives and I am grateful every single day.
Thank you for filling my life with laughter little boy!
Today’s #aepieceofus prompt was eyes closed. I snapped this photo of Jake and I at the climbing gym and even though the color is all off because of being inside the gym I still love this photo.
For the last year the only place I’ve been going when I leave the house is either to do grocery shopping which we do touchless or the climbing gym with Jake now that we are in the orange zone.
Three times a week we go and climb for 2 hours. There are lots and lots of things I can say about it but one of my favorite things is that it’s time that Jake and I spent together just the two of us and we literally hold each other up and support each other as we climb.
There are many things I love about my husband and at the very top of the list is who he is and who he makes me want to be. He has always added light into my life and has always made me strive to be a better version of myself. These hours at the gym are no exception. I’m so grateful for him and so grateful that he’s encouraging me to get stronger.
Yes to time together and yes to getting stronger and yes to people who make you want to be a better version of yourself.
Today’s #aepiecesofus prompt is “face forward” I suppose I could have saved this for tomorrow since it’s also eyes closed and this photo was not taken today but I wanted to use this because this project is about the stories.
I love this photo because I am laughing. I usually don’t think of myself as a happy person and can definitely spend more time with anxiety or sadness than average. And yet it’s just that I feel all the feelings big. I can feel deep sadness and also great joy. I love laughing with my people. I love loving my people.
And this photo is a reminder of how easy it is to make me laugh.
Yes to laughter and yes to joy and yes to feeling all the feelings.
Today’s #aepiecesofus prompt is “hands” and it was the perfect prompt for celebrating a small win with the journaling.
Since I couldn’t get into the journaling routine for months now, I decided to try a new trick. When I am done with exercise and finally sit at my desk, I set my timer to 5 minutes and journal as much as I can in that time. No pressure to go longer and realistically I almost always have five minutes.
I’ve been able to journal all week so far.
This is the same way I’ve been exercising. 10 minutes of core, 10 minutes of stretching, 10 minutes of arms, 10 minutes of biking and 10 minutes of restorative yoga. 5 minutes of meditation and now 5 minutes of journaling.
It’s been such a gift.
Yes to journaling more. Yes to finding ways to make it work.
There are no words for how happy the ranunculus make me.
It’s always hard to wind down on Sunday nights. I find it takes me hours to get to a place where I feel excited to do things on Sunday so then I am on a roll and don’t want to stop when it gets late.
Today I spent a lot of time journaling and a lot of time scrapbooking. It was lovely to get to play with paper and tell stories and think about life.
I am grateful for a good weekend and still anxious about starting this coming week as I am most Sunday nights.
So instead of reading, I will do ten minutes of restorative yoga so I can quiet my mind.
Yes to slowing down. Yes to being present with it. Yes to yoga.
Today my husband took us to this little know gem of a place and we got to walk around and enjoy the fresh air and see art that is built on nature and into nature. It was quite magical. Even though it was a 45-minute drive from home it felt light-years away from any city.
It was a good reminder that I don’t have to travel far to be in a completely different environment. And that I don’t have to travel far to be in a completely different mindset either.
I didn’t want to go today. In fact I didn’t want to do anything. It took a lot of energy to get out of bed this morning let alone to leave the house. But, as always, I am sitting here and feeling grateful that I went.
And maybe one day I can be better about yielding to whim too.
Yes to nature, yes to saying yes. Yes to doing it anyway.
I am finding that I randomly stress about upcoming things that are not currently under my control like whether I will be able to find a slot to get vaccinated or things that I need to do but can’t get motivated to get done. Like finding someone to paint our house or renewing my license.
So instead I will list some things I am looking forward to:
– Climbing competition season is starting soon and I really love watching bouldering competitions so I am really looking forward to that in two weeks
– The kids have spring break in a week. I am trying to decide if we go.on vacation but plan to take time off either way. Looking forward to that.
– It’s been 70-80 here all week, really looking forward to spending more time outside in the fresh air.
That’s my current list. It’s making me feel better about what is and helping me focus on the now.
Yes to embracing what is. Yes to sunshine and time together.
I have not been leaving the house enough this week and thus not enjoying enough of the sunshine that California is lucky to have this week.
Tomorrow I will make a point to go outside.
I still can’t really think of anything pithy to say. The days have been really tiring here and by the time it’s 7pm, I feel completely spent.
Looking forward to saying goodbye to March which is historically one of my least favorite months. And looking forward to April which promises to bring in a lot of change and celebration and maybe just maybe if we’re lucky, some vaccination.
I’m really hoping April proves to be an excellent month. Saying yes to April and what it might bring. Yes to what is.
