I’ve focused on nourishing myself for a few years on and off now. And each year it’s similar goals and each year I have different successes and improvement areas. I’ve also learned that what you focus on grows, so I think it’s a good idea to continue to focus on nourishing because it ends up positively affecting all areas of my life. So far, I am planning to lean into this, for 2022, let’s see where it goes.
Here’s what I am thinking of at the moment.
Mind+Soul:
Spaciousness: I have found that stretching, restorative yoga and meditation all help me with being here and crating more presence and thus space in my life. I currently do 20 mins of each of these daily and I would like to continue for as long as I can.
Rest: I would like to take a bath at least once a week. I would like to sleep 8 hours a night as often as I can.
Reflection: I would like to journal more. Ideally I would do morning pages every morning, my quick journaling at night and possibly more throughout the day.
Art: I am deeply craving doing more creating. I want to do art. I seem to be stuck so I am hoping I can find a creative way out of this stuckness sometime soon.
Body:
Exercise: This is one of the areas where I’ve already been leaning into pretty heavily so I am grateful for the progress here and would like to commit to continuing this work. My current exercise regime is doing 20 minutes of the peloton bike, 40 minutes of strength using the HCOTF calendar daily. And then twice a week, I go rock climbing with my husband. I plan to stick to this routine for as long as it continues to work for me.
Food: For January, I’ve walked away from gluten and sugar, mostly to reset my daily routine as I was eating both of those too much during November and December. Instead, I am leaning into whole foods more and working on making healthier choices.
Water: My goal is to drink 64 ounces of water every day. I’ve been doing that for some time and it’s working well. Ideally I’d like to move to herbal tea but I still haven’t found one I can tolerate/enjoy as much as I would like. Maybe it can be a yearlong journey to find one.
Skin: I’d like to put moisturizer on every day. My skin, my feet.
Floss: Just once a day before bed.
Joy:
Learn: I love learning. I come alive when I learn new things. Almost anything. I would like to find a way to infuse this into my life with some regularity.
Connection: Connection is hard for me but I want to foster more of it. I want to reconnect with old friends, solidify my connection with my existing friends and find new ones. I would like more connection in my life.
Music: Music gives me joy. I don’t listen to it enough, I usually choose to read. I would like to make room for music in my life.
Face Masks: These are fun. I want to do them more.
And more: I want to see what gives me joy. I want to create a growing list of things. An inventory of joy.
I know this is a lot. I will take it slow and see what I can do.
Nourish is a year-long project for 2022. You can read more about my projects for 2022 here.
I haven’t gone climbing for ten days because we usually go climbing on Mondays and Thursdays and last Monday I injured my back so I needed to rest.
It always feels weird to go back after an absence and I am always grumpy about going but then when the night is over, I am filled with joy because I spent time focusing on my health.
Weekly Intention: my intention this week is to be productive and slow. I want to slow down in my interactions and try to stay focused on my deliverables.
This month’s intention is:Small Joys : Start small. Make a plan for the steps you want to take and give yourself a lot of grace. Take a handful of steps. You got this. I have started on this, capturing daily joys on insta and taking a few small steps like buying some of the things I wanted. Finding a way to set my table up etc.
One area where I will go deeper this week: I would like to find some way to do journaling and art.
What do I need to sit with this week? understanding my feelings.
I am looking forward to: getting some work done and also having a 3-day weekend.
Focus onCore Desired Feelings (ease, release, equanimity, space, possibility): I am actively working on paying attention to what’s holding me back in these areas. Last week, I learned that I can’t always trust my thoughts. I was making something really big in my head but then when I did it, it was fun. So I can’t always trust what I think something will feel like. I am learning to pay attention to what’s getting in the way and finding ways to raise my awareness.
This week’s challenges: I have a lot of work I would like to get done, I would like to find a way to make it possible. To be both more efficient and more productive.
Top Goals:
Work: be productive. get at least the offsite and the new calendar and the write up for OC done.
Personal: find a plan for morning pages, do some art – however small, continue on wellness, make a connection plan
Family: climb with J, make a decision with D and doctor, help N with CB, help J with G, be patient, spacious and kind.
This week, I want to remember: what matters most to me is to be kind and loving.
Not sure why I thought a disaster book would be a good idea to read right now but I am glad I did. This an excellent story about four people who live in a sheltered house during a disaster that’s making the sea levels rise. Told in three alternating viewpoints, the story is personal, touching and well-written.
There are not enough words for how much I loved this essay collection. I am already an ardent fan of both Patchett’s fiction and her nonfiction but she has outdone herself with this collection. I loved the audiobook which is narrated by her and she has done an exceptional job. This will undoubtedly be at the top of my favorites for 2022.
Yet another excellent addition to this exceptional series centered around girls and how it’s okay to be exactly who you are. I love this series and even though the last one wasn’t a big winner for me, I loved reading this one and I love McGuire’s imagination and her ability to take us into these magical worlds while continually reinforcing the message around being who you are and writing your own destiny.
I have read and loved Hooper’s books before and this was no exception.
This is the story of Cleo and Dave. They alternate telling their story. Cleo is a teenager and Dave is her dad with aspergers. Something terrible happened to them and they are working on moving forward and finding how to live their life, now.
The story is told in bits and pieces and it’s not possible to not fall in love with both of these characters. You feel for them, you root for them, you want the very best for them. There are some serious topics tackled in this story so trigger warnings for violence. But it will stay with me for a long, long time.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Keylight BooksIngram for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was an excellent excellent book. Emma Straub took a tired concept (time travel) and put a new and fresh spin on it. I loved every minute I spent with her characters, even the smaller ones. The story is both cute and serious, it’s both endearing and enjoyable to read. As a child of the 80s and 90s, I loved the references to times of my teenage years and as a book-lover, I loved the peek into her dad’s writer-life.
highly recommended.
with gratitude to edelweiss and riverhead books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
I loved this book. I studied sign language many, many years ago and have always dreamt of being an interpreter (I am nowhere as good as I would need to be but it always looks so amazing when I watch interpreters.) so I loved reading a book centered around an interpreter and a deafblind main character.
There was so much depth and also levity to this book. A colorful list of characters. Definitely many important and triggering subjects were discussed and I also felt connected to each of the characters. I felt there was depth and dimensionality in each of them.
with gratitude to edelweiss and atria books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I decided that I missed writing daily and being able to reflect, but at the same time I don’t really want to write in a very public forum. Or at least not in the same forum that I was writing last year. So for now this is going to be in a closed IG account that just flows into my blog. We’ll see where we take it later this year.
One of the things I’ve started doing this year is to meditate more while I’m sitting in a bath. Today I lit a candle, put some bubbles and put on a meditation. It was a wonderful way to do a body scan and relax.
I’m still resisting the word joy a little bit, but I think that what I am bringing myself back to again and again. Is this sense of easeful joy or joyful ease. Can I cultivate more of that?
I had regular goals for my blog for the last few years and that worked well for me until 2020 when I just gave everything up. At this point, I am not yet sure how I feel about 2022 and the blog so I don’t want to prematurely commit to things. But here are a few things that are top of mind for me
Daily Joys: Posting daily on my instragram really helped me keep my word front and central this year. I am currently contemplating continuing that. We’ll see if I do.
Art: I really miss art. I will find a way to bring it back to my life and here.
Reflection: Monday and Sunday reflection posts helped me stay connected to my goals, keep track of my intentions, I will see if I can bring those back.
Nourish: Last year I did 100 days of radical wellness and it really really worked for me. I am thinking of doing a version of that again this year, bringing together all my goals around food, exercise, skincare, mental health, etc, it’s a really good focus for me.
Reading – I read a lot this year. I continued to read netgalley/edelweiss ARC books as well as audiobooks from the library and audible. I plan to continue this next year. I will continue tracking them on goodreads.
Like last year, I bailed around October which seems to be when I get tired and just don’t feel up to it anymore. So like last year, I give myself the caveat that all of these might happen, none of them might happen. I might repeat projects. I might do wildly different things. I am giving myself grace while trying to keep myself motivated.
Here’s to a wonderful 2022. Here’s to doing more art. Here’s to making time to enjoy art. Here’s to learning new things. Here’s to practicing more. Here’s to reflecting. Being intentional. Nourishing Creating a positive cycle. Here’s to embracing joy.
